Real‐Time Monitoring of Mass and Mechanical Properties in Single Cells and Multicellular Spheroids
Ilaria Incaviglia, Giulia E. M. Ammirati, Sophie Herzog, Tommy Krug, Nico Strohmeyer, Miguel Camacho Rufino, Matthias P. Lutolf, David A. Weitz, Daniel J. Müller · 2026
Read Real‐Time Monitoring of Mass and Mechanical Properties in Single Cells and Multicellular Spheroids by Ilaria Incaviglia, Giulia E. M. Ammirati, Sophie Herzog, Tommy Krug, Nico Strohmeyer, Miguel Camacho Rufino, Matthias P. Lutolf, David A. Weitz, Daniel J. Müller (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13616342.txt.
Description
Ilaria Incaviglia and colleagues build a microscope-stage balance that weighs single living cells and small cell balls while also feeling their stiffness, all in real time under normal culture conditions. Cell mass, growth, and mechanics are tightly linked, yet no tool read all three together fast enough to follow quick changes. Their device uses tiny diving-board sensors, set vibrating by light heat, paired with a microscope camera.
The sensor's quality factor, a measure of how cleanly it rings, mirrored the cell's mechanical character while its frequency shift tracked mass. Readings came at millisecond resolution, quick enough to catch subcellular events. Watching weight and springiness change together through growth, specialisation, or disease could reveal which shift comes first, a clue to how cells decide their fate.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ilaria Incaviglia, Giulia E. M. Ammirati, Sophie Herzog, Tommy Krug, Nico Strohmeyer, Miguel Camacho Rufino, Matthias P. Lutolf, David A. Weitz, Daniel J. Müller |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 64 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |