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Atomic Force Microscopy for the Life Sciences: Quantifying forces

Peter Grutter

Physics, ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

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Mechanical forces are controlled by cells and are integrated into tissues to produce the final form of an organism. Mechanical properties of the environment also affect cell differentiation, shape, proliferation, migration and apoptosis. The importance of physical forces and shape in development and function of organisms was recognized a long time ago, and formed the discipline of ‘physics in biology’ or ‘physiology’. Quantifying these forces at a cellular and sub-cellular level has, however, only recently become possible with the advent of nanotechnology. In this presentation I will concentrate on introducing the capabilities of one of these force sensing methods - atomic force microscopy (AFM) - which allows nm scale imaging. In addition, AFM is capable of quantifying mechanical properties on single molecular bonds up to whole cells. Finally, manipulation of cells such as live neurons will be introduced, demonstrating how using forces can be used to engineer functional neuronal networks.