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Manish Butte and colleagues in engineering have developd a way to rapidly map cells by making a major advancement in atomic force microscopy, a technology invented at Stanford. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben) Manish Butte and colleagues in engineering have developd a way to rapidly map cells by making a major advancement in atomic force microscopy, a technology invented at Stanford. (Photo: Norbert von der Groeben)

New microscopy technique maps mechanical properties of living cells

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A new microscope could provide unique insights into treating immune disorders and cancer. Stanford News reports on a collaboration of pediatric immunology and electrical engineering researchers which has developed a microscope that can rapidly measure the mechanical properties of cells at the nanometer scale.

Their paper in ACS Nano describes how Stanford assistant professor of pediatric immunology Manish Butte and Post-doctoral fellow Andrew Wang have developed an advancement in atomic force microscopy (AFM) which increase the frequency and sensitivity of the probes allowing imaging cells in higher resolution.

“The main difference between this and previous atomic force microscopes is that we are able to measure the impact of the probe on the cell very fast and get specific readings, whereas typical AFMs simply provide an average. This allows us to accurately measure some very soft materials for the first time,” said Professor of Electrical Engineering Olav Solgaard, who also is a co-author of the paper.

Read the full article at Stanford News.

Visible Legacy Comment

This project builds on a previous the AFM also developed at Stanford in 1986 and recent work in the Microphotonics Lab. With these improvements imaging can be fast enough to create a series of time-lapse images of a living cell, opening the door to a new field of "mechanobiology". Tech Scouts seeking imaging technology in the pursuit of understanding cellular structure such as cancer cells or immune cells may find this of interest. The project in the Butte Lab is an example of multi-disciplinary collaboration in translational research. See the latest research from the ecosystem by exploring the map below!

 

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  • Caption: The Stanford Butte Lab addresses fundamental and translational questions in immunology. The fundamental focus of the lab blends our interests in mechanobiology (how cells make and sense mechanical forces) and regulation of the immune system in autoimmunity, cancer, and infection. The clinical and translational focus is on understanding the basis of rare diseases of the immune system. We are also developing diagnostic technologies for low-cost monitoring of immune health and improving the diagnosis of food allergies.

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