Particle Tracking of Fluorescent Microspheres

In this research, the diffusion coefficients of the fluorescent microspheres and the relation of those coefficients to particle radius were investigated. An additional focus was to see how well the measured radius of the microspheres compared to the radius as reported by the manufacturer and to measure the distribution of radii in a sample. This study further developed the critical process of ensuring particle movement within the sample volume and made preliminary sample measurements.The methods developed for tracking microspheres will later be used to determine the radii of virus like particles (VLPs), which are a non-infectious model system of the HIV virus. Results from our measurements will be reported.