Abstract
Mechanical, electrical and chemical signals from the environment direct influence the physiological activities and health of a cell. While the existing trend is to study these signals separately in their respective domains, they are actually inherently coupled. Here we explore the feasibility and merits of a new instrument that can measure, for the first time, externally applied (or internally generated) forces and electrical impedance of a single cell in real time. The pico-Newton resolution micro-instrument (1 mm × 1mm in size) will be readily compatible with conventional optical/fluorescence techniques for opto-electro-mechanical probing. Force sensing operation is unaffected by the electrical and chemical nature of cell environment and the bio-impedance measurement scheme can automatically compensate for any non-cell specific sources of error. Studies on the effects of mechanical, electrical and chemical signals with real-time opto-electro-mechanical cell characterization will impact diagnosis and cure for various diseases of the heart, skin, intestines, nerves, oncology, bones, lung - to name a few. Long-term contributions would be novel lab-on-a-chip type diagnostic/therapeutic/drug discovery tools to monitor the bio-impedance of a single cell with respect to external stimuli (toxin, drug).
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | IMECE2004-59431 |
Pages (from-to) | 109-114 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Advances in Bioengineering, BED |
State | Published - Jan 1 2004 |
Event | 2004 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, IMECE - Anaheim, CA, United States Duration: Nov 13 2004 → Nov 19 2004 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Engineering(all)