Related papers: High-throughput measurement of elastic moduli of m…
The accurate determination of the elastic properties is non-trivial for metallic foils. The measured elastic modulus is often described in literature as significantly smaller than the respective modulus of the bulk counterparts. This paper…
We present a simple method for accessing the elastic properties of microscopic deformable particles. This method is based on measuring the pressure-induced deformation of soft particles as they are forced through a tapered glass…
We use optical trapping to continuously bend an isolated microtubule while simultaneously measuring the applied force and the resulting filament strain, thus allowing us to determine its elastic properties over a wide range of applied…
Tissue stiffness is related to soft tissue pathologies and can be assessed through palpation or via clinical imaging systems, e.g., ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging. Typically, the image based approaches are not suitable during…
The rheological parameters of materials are determined in the industry according to international standards established generally on the basis of widespread techniques and robust methods of estimation. Concerning solid polymers and the…
Elasticity is a fundamental cellular property that is related to the anatomy, functionality and pathological state of cells and tissues. However, current techniques based on cell deformation, atomic force microscopy or Brillouin scattering…
The transfer of mechanical signals through cells is a complex phenomenon. To uncover a new mechanotransduction pathway, we study the frequency-dependent transport of mechanical stimuli by single microtubules and small networks in a…
Modelling of single cellulose fibres is usually performed by assuming homogenous properties, such as strength and Young s modulus, for the whole fibre. Additionally, the inhomogeneity in size and swelling behaviour along the fibre is often…
Cell spheroids are in vitro multicellular model systems that mimic the crowded micro-environment of biological tissues. Their mechanical characterization can provide valuable insights in how single-cell mechanics and cell-cell interactions…
We present a simple and \emph{non-invasive} experimental procedure to measure the linear viscoelastic properties of cells by passive video particle tracking microrheology. In order to do this, a generalised Langevin equation is adopted to…
We report detailed theoretical investigations of the micro-mechanics and bulk elastic properties of composites consisting of randomly distributed stiff fibers embedded in an elastic matrix in two and three dimensions. Recent experiments…
We study dense, disordered stacks of elastic macroscopic fibers. These stacks often exhibit non-linear elasticity, due to the coupling between the applied stress and the internal distribution of fiber contacts. We propose a theoretical…
It is known from the wave-like motion of microtubules in motility assays that the piconewton forces that motors produce can be sufficient to bend the filaments. In cellular phenomena such as cytosplasmic streaming, molecular motors…
We present an experimental protocol for the fabrication and characterization of scalable microarchitected elastic waveguides. Using silicon microfabrication techniques, we develop free-standing 2D truss-based architected waveguides with a…
Motivated by recent experiments showing the buckling of microtubules in cells, we study theoretically the mechanical response of, and force propagation along elastic filaments embedded in a non-linear elastic medium. We find that, although…
A procedure to characterize the electrical and mechanical properties of micro-fibers is presented here. As the required equipment can be found in many teaching laboratories, it can be carried out by physics and mechanical/electrical…
We present a general theoretical analysis of semiflexible filaments subject to viscous drag or point forcing. These are the relevant forces in dynamic experiments designed to measure biopolymer bending moduli. By analogy with the ``Stokes…
We describe the measurement of anisotropic viscoelastic moduli in complex soft materials, such as biopolymer gels, via video particle tracking microrheology of colloid tracer particles. The use of a correlation tensor to find the axes of…
Soft, microscale hydrogel fibers and rods play important roles in tissue engineering, flexible electronics, soft robotics, drug delivery, sensors, and other applications. Their viscoelastic mechanical properties, while critical for their…
Motivated by recent experimental observations of capillary-induced spooling of fibers inside droplets both in spider capture silk and in synthetic systems, we investigate the behavior of a fiber packed in a drop. Using a simplified 2D…