Can We Diagnose Disease Based on How “Sticky” Cells Are?
Viscosity impacts cell health, and now we can measure it
How “sticky” cells are, or their viscosity, holds a wealth of information about their health and functionality. Now, researchers have developed a laser-powered technology that can make precise measurements of this characteristic in living cells for diagnostic and pharmaceutical testing applications.
“The stickiness, or viscosity, of liquids, is incredibly important in biology,” said Warwick Bowen from the Queensland Quantum Optics Lab, which developed this innovative new approach to viscosity measurements.
“In living cells, viscosity fluctuations control shape and structure, modulate chemical reactions, and signal whether a cell is healthy or cancerous.”
However, as Bowen explains, existing technologies to measure viscosity are too slow to monitor these fluctuations which are occurring at sub-millisecond timescales.
How viscous a cell influences the rate of diffusion and biomolecular reactions happening within the cell’s interior. Therefore, having the right viscosity is essential to the functioning of a healthy cell, and abnormal viscosities have been associated with diseases such as cancer.
