Effect of free electrons on cells & biomolecules

In recent years, the research group has intensively worked on plasma-mediated laser effects in biological media. Nonlinear imaging techniques such as multiphoton microscopy were used to study the immune response in the mouse intestine after laser-induced damage. Of particular interest is the importance of the generation of free electrons during the focusing of ultrashort laser pulses and pulse series in biomolecules in an aqueous environment and especially their molecular changes. The effect of free electrons on biomolecules is crucial for the understanding of possible DNA damage, especially in the investigation of photo-damage in multi-photon microscopy.

In two consecutive third-party funded projects, each lasting 3 years (Multimodal sensing of ultra-high-resolution free-electron-mediated modification of biomolecules targeted by metallic nanoparticles (2018-2021), Experimental and theoretical investigations of the mechanisms of free-electron mediated modification of biomolecules in nonlinear microscopy (2015-2018)), the basic mechanisms of the effect of laser-induced free electrons on biomolecules have been and are being investigated experimentally and theoretically.