Thermo mechanical studies of cells with nano probes on a Si substrate

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The objective of this proposal is to develop a novel Si substrate and a 3D force sensor to investigate thermo-mechanical behavior of single cells at the scale of a single adhesion site. The cellular investigations include: (a) size and strength of single adhesion sites; (b) thermal activities during formation of the sites; (c) inter and intra-cellular response of cells due to thermal stimuli applied at the sites. The approach is to form patterned or self assembled gold nano electrodes (wires) on a Si substrate. The wires will be coated by a cell adhesive. The rest of the substrate, between the wires, will be coated by a cell non-adhesive. Thus, cells cultured on this substrate will form discrete adhesion sites on gold wires, allowing the above studies. The project has a broad impact both on the fields of medicine and physical science. Living cells adhere to one another to form tissues and organs. Cell adhesion plays a fundamental role on a variety of cell functionality, such as growth and cell division, as well as on disease progression such as angiogenesis. Until today there is very little knowledge on the cooperative arrangements and synergistic interactions between adhesion sites, significance of their cluster size, shape, their characteristic length scales, and their dynamics. This project will address some of the yet unanswered questions on cell adhesion and provide fundamental insight on the relation between cell mechanics and disease progression. Furthermore, a video series will be developed with three episodes for the promotion of science and bio-nano-technology among school students.