Designed as an extension to an inverted microscope the instrument explores the physical properties of cells as a biomarker and measures mechanical phenotypes within the cytoskeleton and cell cycle. Using the fluorescence-module we are able to link both intracellular and cell surface antigen expression with the mechanical properties or deformability, to open a new area of research within the microscopy/ flow cytometry field. The fluorescence module for fluorescence intensity measurements has three channels; excitation at 488nm , 561nm and 640nm. Detection at channel 1: 500-550nm; channel 2: 570-610nm; channel 3: 665-735nm.
The potential benefits to cellular research include early stage diagnosis of cell development in cancer cells, detecting changes of the cytoskeleton during cell activation in tumour growth. Kinetic studies involve the investigation of cell stiffness within blood cell types as they grow from platelets to red blood cells because blood cells are stiffer than Heamopoetic Stem Cells that are derived from bone marrow. It will also be useful to sort the cells of interest into pure populations when the Cell Sorting module arrives next year.
