Biophotonic and microfluidic tools for the study of mechanical properties in living cells

Cells live within a physical world and can not only sense the stiffness of their environment, but also change their own stiffness during processes such as differentiation, migration, activation or the progression of many diseases. By measuring the mechanical properties of living cells, it is possible to probe deep inside the cell without disrupting it, and just like an old lady at a fruit stall, we can learn much more than if we only looked from the outside. In this talk, I will present biophotonic and microfluidic methods we have developed to measure cellular stiffness at the single-cell level and show how we can use this to measure and track inherent changes within the cell without the need for labelling. I will also discuss future plans to use these tools to gain further insight into how the DNA inside the nucleus of the cell is protected from physical stress, as well as present a number of collaborative opportunities in microscopy, biophotonics, microfluidics and cell mechanics with research groups at Heriot-Watt University.