IIBR Instrumentation: Multiscale Multiplex Nanomechanical Stimulus and Sensing of Living Cells on 3D-Cell Culture

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An award is made to Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey to develop a sensing platform to achieve rapid, broadband nanomechanical mapping of live cells. By integrating this sensing platform with a scanning probe microscope (SPM), time-elapsed nanomechanical evolutions of multiple cells on a three-dimensional (3D) cell culture can be mapped. Such a sensing platform can be used as a powerful tool in various biology studies to gain a better understanding of the correlation between molecular signaling and biomechanical physics in tissue remodeling. The research outcomes of this project will be disseminated through patent applications, technical demonstration and presentation in biological conferences, and journal publications. Joint summer workshops will be organized to introduce nano/bio-mechanical sensing to both graduate and undergraduate students. Well-established programs at Rutgers such as the Rutgers Society for Women Engineers will be leveraged to recruit under-represented students including women and African American at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and to reach out to middle- and high- school students through open lab-tours. The research goal of this project is to achieve a wide variety of nanomechanical measurements of a 3D-cell culture, including rapid and broadband nanomechanical property mapping of multiple cells, mechanical stimulus and cell poking with precision force control, and simultaneous mechanical stimuli and mechanical measurement of cells. This research goal will be accomplished through the following four objectives: (I). A nano-manipulator with four degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions (two translational and two rotational) will be designed and built, and then integrated to a SPM system equipped with an inverted optical microscope. (II). A multi DOF nano-positioning stage will be designed and built to manipulate a cantilever probe, and integrated to the SPM system; (III). A suite of algorithms will be developed to integrate the above two manipulators with the SPM system to fulfill the desired cell stimuli and measurement functions; and (IV). The new sensing platform will be demonstrated and evaluated through time-elapsed viscoelasticity mapping of 3D cell culture in plant biology and cell biology benchmark experiments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.