Simultaneous Measurement of Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Biological Cells Using a Tuning Fork-Coupled Conductive Probe

AFM-style probes have commonly been used to measure mechanical properties of materials such as their Young’s Modulus. This technique has also been implemented to further explore biological cells¹. Differentiation, pluripotency, and other attributes have been linked to certain mechanical properties of cells as well their membrane potential^2,3,4. Simultaneous measurements of these quantities can help determine their inter-relation and inform on their relationship(s) with other properties. We have devised a conductive tip tuning fork probe, which is intended to simultaneously measure mechanical properties and membrane potential of a cell. We discuss fabrication and preliminary experimental results using conductive tip tuning forks to probe HeLa cells.

¹S. Vahabi et al., Iran J. Med. Sci. 38(2) 76-83, 2013
²S Sundelacruz et al., Stem Cell Rev. and Rep. 5(3), 231-46 (2009)
³R. D. González-Cruz et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 109(24), E1523-9 (2012)
⁴K Hammerick et al., Tissue Eng. 17, 495-502 (2011)