title: Red blood cell as an adaptive optofluidic microlens.
abstract: The perspective of using live cells as lenses could open new revolutionary and intriguing scenarios in the future of biophotonics and biomedical sciences for endoscopic vision, local laser treatments via optical fibres and diagnostics. Here we show that a suspended red blood cell (RBC) behaves as an adaptive liquid-lens at microscale, thus demonstrating its imaging capability and tunable focal length. In fact, thanks to the intrinsic elastic properties, the RBC can swell up from disk volume of 90 fl up to a sphere reaching 150 fl, varying focal length from negative to positive values. These live optofluidic lenses can be fully controlled by triggering the liquid buffer's chemistry. Real-time accurate measurement of tunable focus capability of RBCs is reported through dynamic wavefront characterization, showing agreement with numerical modelling. Moreover, in analogy to adaptive optics testing, blood diagnosis is demonstrated by screening abnormal cells through focal-spot analysis applied to an RBC ensemble as a microlens array.
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-Istituto di Cibernetica 'E. Caianiello', Via Campi Flegrei 34, Pozzuoli (NA) I-80078, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Miccio
authors.affiliation: 1] Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-Istituto di Cibernetica 'E. Caianiello', Via Campi Flegrei 34, Pozzuoli (NA) I-80078, Italy [2] Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Health Care@CRIB, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Largo Barsanti e Matteucci 53, Napoli 80125, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Memmolo
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-Istituto di Cibernetica 'E. Caianiello', Via Campi Flegrei 34, Pozzuoli (NA) I-80078, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Merola
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Health Care@CRIB, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Largo Barsanti e Matteucci 53, Napoli 80125, Italy.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Netti
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-Istituto di Cibernetica 'E. Caianiello', Via Campi Flegrei 34, Pozzuoli (NA) I-80078, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferraro
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D004867:Equipment Design; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D007909:Lenses; D008027:Light; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D009997:Osmotic Pressure