Human Somatic Cells Identified by Their Locomotion Pattern.

A novel sensor will enable human somatic cells to be identified based on their characteristic locomotion pattern. The sensor is expected to facilitate the diagnosis of diseases or assessment of healing processes.

The sensor consists of a smooth surface that is studded with 250,000 tiny plastic columns measuring five microns in diameter. These columns are made of elastic polyurethane plastic. When a cell glides across them, it very slightly bends them sideways. This deflection is registered by a digital camera and analyzed by a special software program.

Manufacturing the sensor, which is called Cellforce, was complicated. The columns had to be coated in such a way that living cells were happy to move across their tips. The cells would otherwise avoid the tips and continue their journey lower down between the columns. In that case, there would be no deflection at all. The microscope required for cell magnification had to be adapted to suit the application. In order to build the delicate column structure, liquid plastic was pressed into a negative mold at a pressure of 2000 bar and allowed to harden. To allow cost-effective production of the Cellforce sensor in the future, commercially available plastics and well-established techniques from chip manufacture will be utilized.

The Cellforce sensor was devised and manufactured by scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (Institute Angewandte Optik und Feinmechanik) IOF (Jena, Germany). The project manager, Dr. Norbert Danz commented, "Analysis of cell locomotion is important for numerous applications. It could be used to check whether bone cells are successfully populating an implant, or how well a wound is healing.”

The scientists have already shown that their Cellforce sensor works. The Cellforce prototype is expected to be ready in the year 2009. It will be the task of initial biological tests to show how different cell types behave.


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Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF