Abstract: Invented 30 years ago, optical tweezers achieved a number of groundbreaking achievements in biology and promoted the development of biophysics. In 2018, A. Ashkin won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of optical tweezers, which once again inspired the society′s attention to the technology of light. The ability of optical tweezers to quantitatively measure the force and actively manipulate micro-particles like cells makes it a unique tool in the biomedical field. This paper discusses optical tweezers from the perspective of biological applications. We hope it pave a way for biologists to address scientific questions and improve their sample preparation by revisiting the characteristics and functions of optical tweezers. Here we dedicated to popularize and advance existing research results by introducing examples of single beam optical tweezers applications that biologists can easily grasp. This paper focused on characteristics of physical biological cross-disciplinary research, and analyzed the technical bottlenecks involved in the study of single-cell and single-molecule by optical tweezers. We also introduced the research progress of optical tweezers technology and the current situation of the instrument market, looked forward to the future development and prospects of this field basing on our experience of optical tweezers.

Key words: optical tweezers, interdicipline of physics and biology, single cell, single molecule