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Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Fabrication and Implementation of a Reference-Free Traction Force Microscopy Platform
Published on: October 6, 2019
Massive field-of-view sub-cellular traction force videography enabled by Single-Pixel Optical Tracers (SPOT)
Xing Haw Marvin Tan1, Yijie Wang2, Xiongfeng Zhu3
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States; Department of Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States; Department of Electronics and Photonics, Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 1 Fusionopolis Way, 138632, Singapore.
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We report a massive field-of-view and high-speed videography platform for measuring the sub-cellular traction forces of more than 10,000 biological cells over 13 mm2 at 83 frames per second. Our Single-Pixel Optical Tracers (SPOT) tool uses 2-dimensional diffraction gratings embedded into a soft substrate to convert cells' mechanical traction force into optical colors detectable by a video camera. The platform measures the sub-cellular traction forces of diverse cell types, including tightly connected tissue sheets and near isolated cells. We used this platform to explore the mechanical wave propagation in a tightly connected sheet of Neonatal Rat Ventricular Myocytes (NRVMs) and discovered that the activation time of some tissue regions are heterogeneous from the overall spiral wave behavior of the cardiac wave.
