On-chip cellular force measurement by Direct-Outer-Drive mechanism

This paper reports a novel on-chip cellular force measurement method of single cells using Direct-Outer-Drive mechanism (D-O-D mechanism). This D-O-D mechanism enables high speed (1 kHz), high power (1 kN) and high accurate manipulation (nanometer-order) of Robochip (Robot-integrated microfluidic chip) and mechanical property measurement of single cells. We succeeded in mechanical property measurement of single animal cells with size of ~ 15 μm. Furthermore, by adopting flow systems of microfluidic chip, we can achieve a high-speed, high-precision, and high-throughput consecutive cellular force measurement of single flowing cells.