A Dynamic Model and Analysis of a Single Biological Cell

The relationship between composition and structure of primary cell walls, and cell mechanical properties is not fully understood because intrinsic properties of walls such as Young´s modulus cannot be readily obtained. The aim of this work is to show that Young´s modulus of walls of single yeast cell can be determined by dynamic modeling and analyzing the cell by finite element methods. In this investigation a spherical membrane was defined to benchmark an idealized shape model for yeast cell. Based on the open literature a resonant frequency in the range of 0.8 to 1.6 kHz was assumed for this benchmark cell. Mechanical properties of the cell have been investigated by substituting different modulus of elasticity, radius, density and thickness to fine-tune the results within the range of assumed periodic motions. The effect of different parameters such as, radius, density, thickness and modulus of elasticity on frequency was further investigated through dynamic performance analysis using FEA, in this case ANSYS. The results show that the experimental and the FEM approach agree with each other in some parameters within a reasonable band