LPMT | Biophysics Group

Dipl. Phys.

Navid Bonakdar

PhD candidate
Center of Medical Physics and Technology
(Fabry Lab)

Navid Bonakdar
Methods

Techniques

High Force Magnetic Tweezer Device

Scientific rheometer used to study the mechanical properties of biological materials in the micrometer range

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Multidirectional Force Application

Rotational device that enables multidirectional tweezer measurements at high forces

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2D Traction force Microscopy

Measuring the contractile forces of cells to the underlying substrate

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Life cell imaging

Technique to estimate the migration speed of different cell lines on 2D substrates

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Cell stretcher


Under construction...


Many cell types in our body are subjected to deformation or mechanical forces. These mechanical signals play important roles in many fundamental cell functions, exert multipe effects and thereby regulating important processes. In ordert o investigate the mechanical response of cells to uniaxial stretch we use a cell stretching device wich was kindly given by the Forschungszentrum Jülich. Cells are seeded on an flexible PDMS-membrane and are stretched by a stepper motor wich is connected to one side oft the chamber.

Figure 1| Cell Stretcher. (A) Schematic drawing of the experimental setup. An elastic PDMS membrane is clamped and periodically elongated in x direction. Cells are seeded inside the flexible chamber.

Stretch induced cell reorientation

Reorientation of mouse embrionic fibroblasts during 1 hour of stretch. Image was taken before and after stretch. The stretch was horizontaly applied while cells reoriented perpendicular to the stretching direction in order to establish an optimal internal stress through accumulation of stress fibers in orientations that avoid rapid changes in length.