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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Soft-MEMS for mechanobiology
DTSTART:20180220T121500
DTEND:20180220T131500
DTSTAMP:20260916T123729Z
UID:e6f197360f464e85dbe0f42e44cddf96b6861136572554803c09c4d7
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Cristina Martin-Olmos\, CSEM\nAbstract:\nOur research focu
 ses in developing soft-MEMS devices that enable fast and accurate mechanic
 al measurements of single cells and/or cell monolayers. These devices are 
 cost-effective\, compact and cell culture compatible\, allowing\, therefor
 e\, continuous measurements for drug screening assessment.\n\nFor centurie
 s\, medical doctors have used palpation exploration as a part of their exa
 mination to detect lumps or masses. This is used to feel the texture of a 
 patient’s tissue\, gauge its stiffness or reaction to the applied pressu
 re. When parts are detected with a distinct stiffness that is often flagge
 d as an early warning sign for disease.\n\nThanks to the advances in techn
 ology\, over the past 2-3 decades a new field of research has been develop
 ed called mechanobiology\, which is the study of cellular and tissue mecha
 nical properties and its relation with fundamental cellular processes. Man
 y different methods have successfully been used to determine the mechanica
 l properties of cells and even link them to many different diseases. Howev
 er\, a characterization tool that meets the requirements of the research f
 ield\, i.e. high resolution\, high-throughput\, easy to operate\, cost-eff
 ective\, compatible with standard biological equipment\, and able to chara
 cterize both cells and tissues\; is still missing. One of the main reasons
  is the interdisciplinary nature of this field\, where engineering meets b
 io-medicine\; and reconciling these two radically different ways of doing 
 research is a great obstacle to overcome.\n\nOur research work aims to bri
 dge this gap by developing a tool that meets all the above mentioned requi
 rements. The chosen approach is based on the use of soft microelectromecha
 nical system (MEMS). This will yield a very sensitive device that is able 
 to detect forces and stiffness.\n\nBio:\nDr. Cristina Martin-Olmos holds a
  PhD in polymer MEMs since 2008 (Barcelona). Subsequently she worked as a 
 postdoc\, first with Prof. Juergen Brugger at EPFL and then with Prof. Jam
 es K. Gimzewski at UCLA\, where she broadened her background in life scien
 ce applications and mechanobiology. Since January 2015 she is an Ambizione
  fellow at CSEM SA.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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