Pushing and pulling on cells -- mechanical phenotyping to understand cell physiology and pathology

The physical, mechanical properties of cells are an often overlooked but very important part of their role within an organism. By measuring the mechanical phenotype is a marker-free way to quantify functional changes in the physiological and pathological state of living cells. There has been a surge in mechanical phenotyping methods in recent years, allowing for the quantification of changes in cell stiffness and a range of studies to understand the underlying mechanisms. However most techniques are either very sensitive but slow, or very fast and crude. We have recently developed a high-throughput microfluidic-based system which is capable of accurately measuring small changes in single cell mechanics, and can quantify these changes in terms of the physical parameters of the cell (Youngs modulus).