Opto-thermal diffusiophoresis of soft biological matter: from physical principle to molecular manipulation

Abstract

Transport of ions and molecules under external field gradients is fundamental phenomena relevant to many biological systems including molecular motors in nature. As inspired from such biological transport, novel optical manipulation by using local solute gradient and the creation of self-propulsive particles are being developed using this technology. In this review article, we describe the basic principles behind those transport phenomena under a temperature and a solute concentration gradient and discuss novel manipulation tools for soft biological materials. The control of such micron-scale transport will bring new insight in design principles of functional materials showing autonomous motion as seen in molecular motors.

Diffusiophoresis, Diffusioosmosis, and Microfluidics: Surface-Flow-Driven Phenomena in the Presence of Flow

“…A concentration gradient of solute can also be set up by other phoretic effects (e.g., thermophoresis) and then induce diffusiophoresis or diffusioosmosis. Such a configuration is discussed in the article by Fukuyama and Maeda . Note that the concentration gradient of solutes can be created by both addition and depletion of solutes.…”

“…Such a configuration is discussed in the article by Fukuyama and Maeda. 87 Note that the concentration gradient of solutes can be created by both addition and depletion of solutes.…”

Opto-thermal technologies for microscopic analysis of cellular temperature-sensing systems

“…Minimizing convection is an alternative approach by reducing the height of the imaging chamber down to ~ 10 μm, if allowed by the experimental design (Maeda et al 2011). We also note that the temperature gradient causes a concentration gradient of biomolecules by the process known as thermophoresis or the Soret effect (Duhr and Braun 2006;Baaske et al 2007;Budin et al 2009;Fukuyama and Maeda 2020). Although thermophoresis has not been examined extensively in studies of cellular temperature-sensing, it is an attractive subject to reveal if and how thermophoresis is involved.…”

Biophysical Reviews: 2020—looking back, going forward

“…The bulk of the Special Issue was composed of numerous review articles (forty-five) chosen from the nearly thirty separate sections of the BSJ’s national society meeting. A short selection of these (many) interesting review articles includes those dealing with the biophysics of chromatin (Ashwin et al 2020 ; Kumar and Kono 2020 ); optogenetics (Kandori 2020 ); computational structure prediction (Kinoshita and Hayashi 2020 ; Leitner and Yamamoto 2020 ; Tsuchiya and Tomii 2020 ); physical biochemistry (Tsumoto et al 2020 ); molecular motors (Li and Toyabe 2020 ; Loutschko and Flechsig 2020 ; Noji et al 2020 ); membrane protein interaction (Moghal et al 2020 ); novel scattering, structural and imaging techniques (Nakasako et al 2020 ; Uchihashi and Ganser 2020 ; Yamaoki et al 2020 ; Yokoyama et al 2020 ); cellular biophysics (Okazaki et al 2020 ; Yasuda 2020 ); biophysical thermochemistry (Fukuyama and Maeda 2020 ; Suzuki and Plakhotnik 2020 ); and biophysical theory (Leitner and Yamamoto 2020 ; Uda 2020 ).…”