Local evaluation of stiffness distribution for biological organism by nanoprobes inside ESEM

The novel local stiffness evaluations of biological organism is presented though the analysis of deformation by nanoprobe inside an Environmental-Scanning Electron Microscope (E-SEM). The stiffness values are important to reveal and evaluate the cell condition depending on health, diagnosis, growth phase, and so on. The E-SEM provides the real-time high resolution image under water-contained condition. We have been applied this system for nano-biomanipulation environment based on nanorobotic manipulators. The deformation of the biological organism can be observed by E-SEM with real-time imaging. In this paper, the local stiffness of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is evaluated. The deformation area was dynamically changed by the applied forces of nanoprobes. The silicon nanoprobes were fabricated by Focus Ion Beam (FIB) etching at the tip of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilever. The deformation area can be modeled by continuum model such as a Maxwell model. The distribution of the different local points will be evaluated by the proposed stiffness evaluation method.