A mechano-optical microscope for studying force transduction in living cells

This project seeks to integrate atomic force microscopy (AFM) with spinning disk confocal microscopy including fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and a laser ablation system. This so-called "mechano-optical microscope" (MOM) will fully optimize AFM and optical measurements of live cells, and thereby be able to resolve subcellular structures and their dynamic responses to external force. Our long term goal is to construct a multi-scale rheological model 4 that correlates cellular mechanics to the interplay between the microenvironment, nucleo/cytoarchitecture, and the protein linkages between them.