Please Do Squeeze the Tumor Cell
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
A team at UCLA used nanomechanics to show that tumor cells are significantly more elastic than normal cells, suggesting that stiffness can accurately distinguish them from normal cells. The technique could be readily adopted in pathology labs to improve the accuracy of traditional cytology analysis using standard sample preparation and processing. Moreover, there may be an immediate opportunity to use it to diagnose mesothelioma, which is not now possible using visual analysis.