The whiteboard is a great place for brainstorming scientific ideas. Here, Nancy Forde explains how laser tweezers work.

Numbers, equations... we aren’t just talking about math, we are actually talking about how you can help people. Nancy Forde once immersed herself in number puzzles, but now she uses her fabulous physics background to conduct research that connects her with other scientists who are also working to solve problems in health care.

 

 

Nancy Forde makes some adjustments to her laser tweezers instrument.

In her lab, Forde uses laser tweezers and “other cool tools” to study proteins that are used as building blocks in our bodies. Forde takes a laser beam and shines it through a very strong optical lens to bring it into sharp focus. That light beam can actually bend on an object, like a bacterium or microsphere, and hold it. Using these tools, Forde and her colleagues then measure the forces that act on proteins.

Forde’s work is all about people. She mentors students and travels to conferences. To date, researchers in her lab have come from nine different countries. The Michael Smith Foundation recognized the value of Forde’s work to health research by making her a research scholar, and that’s important to Forde, “Science is no good if it’s just for yourself.”