Quantification of living cell adhesion forces with a nanorobotic system

Cell-surface adhesion forces are significant in regulating cellular activities. In this paper, a nanorobotic system was developed and based on this system, a novel method measuring the cell-surface adhesion force is proposed. The nanorobotic system mainly consists of two independently actuated and sensed microcantilevers, forming a nanotweezer with capabilities of pick-and-place manipulation of a single cell in aqueous environments with accurate force sensing that is sufficiently sensitive to characterize interactions of cell-cell, cell-surface, even single molecules. Capabilities of the developed nanorobotic system have been validated by experimentally qualifying cell-surface adhesion events occurred between C2C12 cells (mouse adherent myoblasts) and Petri dishes under different contact time.