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    Stretching and heating cells with light - Nonlinear photothermal cell rheology
    ([London] : IOP, 2020) Huster, Constantin; Rekhade, Devavrat; Hausch, Adina; Ahmed, Saeed; Hauck, Nicolas; Thiele, Julian; Guck, Jochen; Kroy, Klaus; Cojoc, Gheorghe
    Stretching and heating are everyday experiences for skin and tissue cells. They are also standard procedures to reduce the risk for injuries in physical exercise and to relieve muscle spasms in physiotherapy. Here, we ask which immediate and long-term mechanical effects of such treatments are quantitatively detectable on the level of individual living cells. Combining versatile optical stretcher techniques with a well-tested mathematical model for viscoelastic polymer networks, we investigate the thermomechanical properties of suspended cells with a photothermal rheometric protocol that can disentangle fast transient and slow 'inelastic' components in the nonlinear mechanical response. We find that a certain minimum strength and duration of combined stretching and heating is required to induce long-lived alterations of the mechanical state of the cells, which then respond qualitatively differently to mechanical tests than after weaker/shorter treatments or merely mechanical preconditioning alone. Our results suggest a viable protocol to search for intracellular biomolecular signatures of the mathematically detected dissimilar mechanical response modes. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
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    A bioinspired snap-through metastructure for manipulating micro-objects
    (Washington, DC [u.a.] : American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2022) Zhang, Xuan; Wang, Yue; Tian, Zhihao; Samri, Manar; Moh, Karsten; McMeeking, Robert M.; Hensel, René; Arzt, Eduard
    Micro-objects stick tenaciously to each other—a well-known show-stopper in microtechnology and in handling micro-objects. Inspired by the trigger plant, we explore a mechanical metastructure for overcoming adhesion involving a snap-action mechanism. We analyze the nonlinear mechanical response of curved beam architectures clamped by a tunable spring, incorporating mono- and bistable states. As a result, reversible miniaturized snap-through devices are successfully realized by micron-scale direct printing, and successful pick-and-place handling of a micro-object is demonstrated. The technique is applicable to universal scenarios, including dry and wet environment, or smooth and rough counter surfaces. With an unprecedented switching ratio (between high and low adhesion) exceeding 104, this concept proposes an efficient paradigm for handling and placing superlight objects.