'Tractor beam' for microchips created

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have created a kind of Star Trek "tractor beam" that can manipulate individual cells or objects on the surface of a microchip.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers Assistant Professor Matthew Lang and graduate student David Appleyard said the technology they developed could become an important tool for biological and materials research.

Called "optical tweezers," the technology uses the tiny force of a beam of light from a laser to manipulate tiny objects, from cells to plastic beads.

As a demonstration of the system's versatility, Appleyard said, they set it up to collect and hold 16 tiny living E. coli cells on a microchip, forming them into the letters "MIT."

The research is to appear in a future issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.