Laboratorio de Mecánica Celular

Cuticle characterization

The high variability of results in uniaxial tensilemechanical test, permeability and optical properties, for samples of the same spicies, are mainly due to the heterogeneity in thickness distribution of the cellulose present in the cuticle. To address this problem, three-dimensional reconstruction of confocal planes of cuticles are used.

Biocoating and mechanical properties of Red Blood Cells

Adhesion of red blood cells onto functionalized surfaces, creates biological coatings  in a simple and extremely reproductible. During the adhesion process, we observe a "wetting" phenomena, which resembles a drop of fluid onto a solid substrate. The "wetting" process depends not only of thee surface interactions but membrane mechanical properties as well.

Cytoskeletal dynamics

The mechanical response of f-actin stress bundles of RPE-1 cells is under scope when mechanical stretch is applied. Cells are plated onto a H-like PLL-g-PEG/Fibronectin micro patterns on thin PDMS substrates and fluorescent corrected intensity images are used to obtain reliable data of the response of actin structures under mechanical solicitation.