Enhanced Near-Field Force Probing for In Vitro Biomechanical Characterization

Abstract—This paper presents a fully automated micro-robotic system based on force/vision referenced control de-signed for mechanical cell characterization. The design of the prototype combines Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) techniques with advanced robotics approaches. As a result, ac-curate and non-destructive mechanical characterization based on soft contact mechanisms are achieved. The in vitro working conditions are supported by the experimental setup so that mechanical characterization can be performed in biological environmental requirements as well as in cyclical operating mode during several hours. The design of the different modules which compose the experimental setup is detailed. Mechanical cell characterization experiments under in vitro conditions on human cervix Epithelial Hela adherent cells are presented to demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of the proposed setup. Index Terms — In vitro mechanical cell characterization; Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) techniques; Mechanical characterization of human cervix Epithelial Hela adherent cells. I