Nano-mechanical Studies
The ICnano® from Ionscope can be used to probe the nano-mechanical properties of soft targets such as living cells in a non-contact fashion¹². The ICnano® achieves this by squirting a jet of liquid out of the end of the nano-pipette in order to deform the surface (A), the pipette itself remains in feedback and so follows the depression at the surface (C). The pressure, the deformation (B) at the surface, and the radius of the pipette are then used to calculate the Young's modulus (D). The image below shows how the technique was calibrated on a red blood cell of known elasticity. Due to the non-contact nature of SICM, the membrane of the red blood cell remains intact throughout the course of the measurement. If required, SICM can be used to explore mechanical sensitivity to direct contact³.
¹ Sánchez, D., U. Anand, et al. (2007). "Localized and non-contact mechanical stimulation of dorsal root ganglion sensory neurons using scanning ion conductance microscopy." J Neurosci Methods 159(1): 26-34.
² Sánchez, D., Johnson, N., et al. (2008). "Noncontact measurement of the local mechanical properties of living cells using pressure applied via a pipette." Biophys J, 95(6), 3017-27.
³ Pellegrino, M., Orsini, P., et al. (2009) "Use of scanning ion conductance microscopy to guide and redirect neuronal growth cones." Neurosci Res, 64(3), 290-6
