| Optical tweezers are used to investigate small particles from a few micrometers to subnanometer in size at the molecular level. The optical tweezers manipulate molecules tethered between micrometer-sized particles and measures the force of these interactions, which is on the scale of piconewtons. With these advantages, optical tweezers are widely used to study structures and functions of DNA, RNA, and proteins as well as viruses, bacteria, and cells. In this dissertation, use of optical tweezers to study lipid droplet fusion as a single particle research will be presented. The lipid droplet fusion mechanism is relevant to understand growth of lipids inside the cell and its relation with diseases like obesity and fatty liver. Besides lipid droplet fusion, investigation of DNA G-Quadruplexes and its interaction with ligands at a single molecule and sub-molecule level will be presented. This research on the G-Quadruplex gives insight into the structural-stability relation relevant to target it as a means of new cancer therapy. |
