In the future, credit-card sized and self-contained platforms that will be capable of measuring the Young's modulus of various types of cells in a high throughput manner could mark a new milestone in medicine and biomedical research. Indeed, the Young's modulus of cells appears today as a new meaningful marker for detecting several cell-based degenerative diseases at earlier stages. Besides, Young's modulus measurements may have the potential to disclose the specific effects of pharmaceuticals at the cellular level. Hence, measuring the Young's modulus of cells might also prove advantageous in drug development. However, exploiting the Young's modulus of cells as a reliable indicator still poses challenges. This doctoral dissertation reports the design, modeling and experimental validation of a novel force sensor aimed at bringing new solutions to problems encountered so far. Unlike most force sensitive systems intended to extract the Young's modulus of living cells, the force sensor presented in this work is based on a planar structure that exploits a resonant mode for achieving higher force sensitivity. In particular, the structure has been devised to maintain high dynamic performances even if cells are cultured in growth medium. Another key feature of the structure is that it has the potential to address both suspension and adherent cells. In addition, results reported in this work confirm that it can be used to rapidly estimate the Young's modulus of living cells without the need of a descriptive model and a microscope.
