EAPSI: New Method for Characterizing Mechanical Properties of Biological Cells

细胞的力学性能对于组织工程和各种疾病的研究和检测都是极其重要的。为了开发修复或替换受损组织和器官的新方法，组织工程学的研究人员必须知道单个细胞和组织的机械性能。此外，癌症等疾病也会影响天然细胞的机械性能。研究这些力学性能的变化可以导致早期检测设备和新的药物输送机制的发展。这个项目将开发一种新的方法来表征单个细胞的机械性能。开发的表征技术将提供一种简单、快速和灵活的技术，可以使用商业上可用的设备来执行。此外，这项新技术将能够表征细胞的固有频率--S的固有频率，这是目前的测量技术无法确定的机械特性。这项研究将与长谷川康久博士及其在名古屋大学微纳米控制和生物机器人实验室的同事合作进行。长谷川？S博士实验室拥有该项目成功所需的独特专业知识和独一无二的设备。利用长谷川？S博士环境扫描电子显微镜内独特的纳米操作系统，单个细胞将附着在功能化无尖端原子力显微镜光束的末端。环境扫描电子显微镜可以实时可视地验证只有一个单元格附着在梁的末端。然后，将梁-细胞组合转移到AFM，在AFM中，细胞被夹在表面和AFM光束之间。在这种配置中，频率扫描将生成由单胞和束流力学组成的热谱。然后，通过将复杂的数据与先前为孤立的悬臂收集的数据进行比较，可以分离出细胞力学。该NSF EAPSI奖是与日本科学促进会合作资助的。

Mechanical properties of cells are extremely important to both tissue engineering and the study and detection of various diseases. In order to develop new ways to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs, researchers in tissue engineering must know the mechanical properties of both individual cells and tissues. Additionally, diseases, like cancer, affect the mechanical properties of native cells. Studying these changes in mechanical properties can lead to the development of early detection devices and new drug delivery mechanisms. This project will develop a new method to characterize the mechanical properties of individual cells. The characterization technique developed will provide a simple, fast, and flexible technique which can be performed using commercially available equipment. Additionally, this new technique will be able to characterize a cell?s natural frequency, a mechanical property which no current measurement technique can determine. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Yasuhisa Hasegawa and his associates in the Micro-Nano Control and Bio-Robotics Laboratory at Nagoya University. Dr. Hasegawa?s lab has the unique expertise and one-of-a-kind equipment necessary for the success of this project.Using the unique nano-manipulation system inside Dr. Hasegawa?s environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM), a single cell will be adhered onto the end of a functionalized tip-less atomic force microscope (AFM) beam. The ESEM can visually verify, in real time, only a single cell adheres to the end of the beam. The beam-cell combination is then transferred to an AFM where the cell is sandwiched between a surface and the AFM beam. In this configuration, a frequency sweep will generate a thermal spectrum consisting of both cell and beam mechanics. Cellular mechanics can then be isolated by comparing the convoluted data to data gathered previously for an isolated cantilever. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.