We present ongoing research and development activities for constructing a compact next generation BioPhotonics
Workstation and a Bio-optofluidic Cell Sorter (cell-BOCS) for all-optical micro-manipulation platforms utilizing low numerical
aperture beam geometries. Unlike conventional high NA optical tweezers, the BioPhotonics workstation is e.g.
capable of long range 3D manipulation. This enables a variety of biological studies such as manipulation of intricate microfabricated
assemblies or for automated and parallel optofluidic cell sorting. To further reduce its overhead, we propose
ways of making the BioPhotonics Workstation platform more photon efficient by studying the 3D distribution of the counter
propagating beams and utilizing the Generalized Phase Contrast (GPC) method for illuminating the applied spatial light
modulators. Moving ahead, we envision optimal designs for the manipulated microstructures through the use of advanced
topology optimization.