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Published on: March 30, 2017
Using buoyant mass to measure the growth of single cells
Michel Godin1, Francisco Feijó Delgado, Sungmin Son
1Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.
Abstract:
We used a suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) combined with picoliter-scale microfluidic control to measure buoyant mass and determine the 'instantaneous' growth rates of individual cells. The SMR measures mass with femtogram precision, allowing rapid determination of the growth rate in a fraction of a complete cell cycle. We found that for individual cells of Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mouse lymphoblasts, heavier cells grew faster than lighter cells.
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