Fibronectin (FN)-Based Nanomechanical Biosensor
To 3D print an artificial heart, the material has to show elasticity as does a real beating heart. To that end, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University report that they can “fabricate, calibrate, and test a fibronectin (FN)-based nanomechanical biosensor (NMBS) that can be applied to the surface of cells and tissues to measure the magnitude, direction, and strain dynamics from subcellular to tissue length-scales. The NMBS is a fluorescently-labeled, ultra-thin FN lattice-mesh with spatial resolution tailored by adjusting the width and spacing of the lattice from 2–100 µm. Time-lapse 3D confocal imaging of the NMBS demonstrates 2D and 3D surface strain tracking during mechanical deformation of known materials and is validated with finite element modeling.” MORE
Image Credit: Futurism.com