Japan Science and Technology Agency

Koji Ikuta

Masashi Ikeuchi

Yoshinori Inoue

A masking member contains parallel through-holes, each of the through-holes contains a tilted wall structure; an upper end of the tilted wall structure of one of the through-holes abuts on an upper end of the tilted wall structure of an adjacent one of the through-holes thereby forming a knife-edge ridge at the upper ends. The masking member may in contact with a substrate. Formation in quantity of various different populations of a substance being studied with multiple combinations of distribution form and distribution density may be conducted by dripping a suspension of a single concentration of the substance onto the masking member.

Method for producing different populations of molecules or fine particles with arbitrary distribution forms and distribution densities simultaneously and in quantity, and masking

Provided is a 3-dimensional confocal microscopy apparatus which is manufactured by combining a confocal microscope and an optical tweezers technique, wherein a pair of lenses for focal plane displacement where one lens is movable in the optical axis direction is arranged between a fixed objective lens and a fluorescent light imaging camera, and the 3-dimensional confocal microscopy apparatus also includes a mean which corrects the aberration of a fluorescent confocal image obtained by the fluorescent imaging camera. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a 3-dimensional confocal microscopy apparatus which can acquire a 3-dimensional image of a specimen during a manipulation of the specimen using optical tweezers without affecting an optical trap.

Three-dimensional confocal microscopy apparatus and focal plane scanning and aberration correction unit

Three-dimensional microstereolithographic objects fabricated by microstereolithography are exposed to UV light for one hour to accelerate hardening. The structures are then heated at 175&#xb0; C. or above for at least 6 hours. The heating temperature may exceed the glass transition temperature, which is the index of thermal softening temperature of materials. The present invention relates to three-dimensional microstructures formed by microstereolithography. Deformation due to a structure's own weight, which generally poses a problem in heat treatment, is reduced with microstructures due to the size effect. As a result, the dimensions of the three-dimensional structure fabricated by the present invention remain almost unchanged before and after the heat treatment.

Cytocompatible three-dimensional structures fabricated by microstereolithography

The formation in quantity of various different populations of a substance being studied with multiple combinations of distribution form and distribution density by dripping a suspension of a single concentration of the substance onto a masking member of a certain specified structure placed on a substrate by making use of the sedimentation of said substance. A method to form populations of fine particles or molecules on a substrate by specifying the distribution form and distribution surface density, wherein a masking member provided with parallel through-holes and having a tilted wall structure to achieve the target distribution form and distribution density is prepared; a solution or a suspension of the substance being studied is dripped onto said masking member; and the substance settles through the region defined by the tilted wall structure of the masking member; and the result is that the substance settles along the tilted wall structure and passes through the region bounded by the upper boundary of said wall structure and deposits onto the substrate in the area bounded by the lower boundary of the wall structure.

Method for producing different populations of molecules or fine particles with arbitrary distribution forms and distribution densities simultaneously and in quantity, and masking member therefor

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Aichi, Japan

Koji Ikuta