Micro-arheometer: High throughput system for measuring of viscoelastic properties of single biological cells

The micro-arheometer (micro-array of rheometers) is a multi-functional system on a chip. It is capable of cell manipulation and sorting utilizing dielectrophoresis, as well as measuring frequency-dependent viscoelastic cell properties by applying a known force with the desired frequency (piezoelectric actuation) and measuring displacement using a piezoresistive read-out. The micro-arheometer will accelerate biomedical research generating a larger statistical data set in a shorter amount of time by automating the process of micro-rheology on multiple cells at a time.