Evaluation of local stiffness distribution for biological organism by comb-nanoprobes

The novel evaluation of local stiffness distribution for biological organism is presented using comb-nanoprobes. We have been developed the nanorobotic manipulation system inside an Environmental-Scanning Electron Microscope (E-SEM). The E-SEM provides the real-time high resolution image under water-contained condition. We have been applied this system for nano-biomanipulation, nano-bioevaluation, single cell-manipulation environments using various nanotools and nanodevices. The stiffness values are important to reveal and evaluate the cell condition depending on health, diagnosis, growth phase, and so on. The deformation of the biological organism can be observed by E-SEM with real-time imaging. In this paper, the local stiffness distribution of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is evaluated. Using single nanoprobe, we can evaluate the local stiffness individually. However, it is needed time and precise alignment to measure distributed values at each points. In this paper, we fabricate the comb-type silicon nanoprobes to measure the local stiffness distribution in each C. elegans. The local stiffness distribution will be discussed depended on the growth phase or mutation of C. elegans.