Optical nanotweezer for single CELL stuDies : from mANipulation to mechaniCal propErties – CellDance

CellDance is a fundamental project exploring a new kind of optical nanotweezers for single cell mechanical studies. Our objectives are twofold: • The first one is dedicated to a totally new concept of nanotweezer based on metasurfaces with controlled dispersion properties. We expect that it will allow deformability measurements with a sensitivity and frequency response that exceed by far competing approaches. • The second one is devoted to single cell mechanical studies. We will conduct fundamental mechanical studies to explore the possibilities offered by this new approach. We, also, propose to demonstrate that our device is able to discriminate efficiently between healthy red blood cells (RBCs) and malaria-infected RBCs(i-RBCs).