Mechanics plays a fundamental role in cell biology. Cells navigate these mechanical forces to explore their environments and sense the behavior of surrounding living cells. The physical characteristics of a cell’s environment in turn impact cell functions. Therefore, understanding how cells interact with their environment provides crucial insights into cell biology and has wider implications in medicine, including disease diagnosis and cancer therapy.
Mechanics plays a fundamental role in cell biology. Cells navigate these mechanical forces to explore their environments and sense the behavior of surrounding living cells. The physical characteristics of a cell’s environment in turn impact cell functions. Therefore, understanding how cells interact with their environment provides crucial insights into cell biology and has wider implications in medicine, including disease diagnosis and cancer therapy.
So far, researchers have developed numerous tools to study the interplay between cells and their 3D microenvironment. One of the most popular technologies is traction force microscopy (TFM). It is a leading method to determine the tractions on the substrate surface of a cell, providing important information on how cells sense, adapt and respond to the forces.
However, TFM’s application is limited to providing information on the translational motion of markers on cell substrates. Information about other degrees of freedom, such as rotational motion, remains speculative due to technical constraints and limited research on the topic.
Engineering experts at the University of Hong Kong have proposed a novel technique to measure the cell traction force field and tackle the research gap. The interdisciplinary research team was led by Dr. Zhiqin Chu of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Dr.
