Soft materials often exhibit a distinctive power-law viscoelastic response arising from broad
distribution of time-scales present in their complex internal structure. A promising tool to …

Mechanical properties play important roles at different scales in biology. At the level of a
single cell, the mechanical properties mediate mechanosensing and mechanotransduction …

The recent convergence between physics and biology has led many physicists to enter the
fields of cell and developmental biology. One of the most exciting areas of interest has been …

Abstract Force-displacement (FZ) curves are the most commonly used Atomic Force
Microscopy (AFM) mode to measure the local, nanoscale elastic properties of soft materials …

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is not only a tool to image the topography of solid
surfaces at high resolution. It can also be used to measure force-versus-distance curves …

Mechanical properties of individual living cells are known to be closely related to the health
and function of the human body. Here, atomic force microscopy (AFM) indentation using a …

Most organs and biological tissues are soft viscoelastic materials with elastic moduli ranging
from on the order of 100 Pa for the brain to 100 000 Pa for soft cartilage. Biocompatible …

Living cells are an active soft material with fascinating mechanical properties. Under
mechanical loading, cells exhibit creep and stress relaxation behavior that follows a power …

Forces are increasingly recognized as major regulators of cell structure and function, and
the mechanical properties of cells are essential to the mechanisms by which cells sense …

Living cells are active viscoelastic materials exhibiting diverse mechanical behaviors at
different time scales. However, dynamical rheological characteristics of cells in frequency …