New devices help listen to the sound of each cell

Scientists have created a nanoscale optical fiber that can sense the force at an incredibly small intensity, from disturbances caused by bacteria moving in cells to sound waves created by the beat of the heart.

Sensing the functioning of the biological system in the body can help us track the progress of cancer cells, its progression so that doctors can quickly take measures timely treatment.

'This work can open a new door to monitor and interact with very small changes in the body that we had no way to do before', member of the research team, Mr. Donald Sirbuly from the University of California San Diego.

Advances in microscopic technology have allowed us to look deep into the smallest gaps of the body, we can know what is happening there remotely, by feeling the sound of things. going on.

Microscopic technology can help detect even the smallest force, but the only drawback is that the size of the devices is not small enough to fit into the circuits in the human biological system.

So a research team in the United States created fiber from tin oxide, 100 times thinner than a human hair, perfect for putting tiny parts in the body. Tin oxide was coated with a thin layer of polymer with gold nanoparticles.

Simulation of extremely small sized fiber optic cables swimming in the environment of cells.(Photo: Rhett S. Miller / UC Regents).

The use of this device is also extremely simple, just put it into a solution containing living cells or inside a bacterium, it will be carried around the walls of the body and proceeded to do job.

The forces of impact and biological sound that occur will change the light in the ambient environment, this light change is very small but it can reflect on gold nanoparticles, from where the signal moves back to polymer layer gently and put into the core of the cable.

By using this approach, engineers were able to monitor the smallest, though powerful, forces that were taking place to monitor the beating of heart cells and the movement of bacteria in tumors.

'We not only recorded the impact and sound of each cell, but also predicted many different pathologies by using this device. This is a new tool that allows nanoscale mechanical exploration with high accuracy, ' said Sirbuly.

This fiber optic cable is 10 times more sensitive than the AFM device - a device with the same function but less sensitive, it can sense forces under 160 femton and listen to sounds less than 30 decibels (lower 1000 times the minimum level of hearing ears.

To make it easier to imagine, any apple has the force of 1 Newton lying on the ground, then 100 femtonewtons equals 1 part trillion of that level. That means an apple is cut into 10 trillion small pieces.

This technique allows to flexibly change the polymer layer depending on different uses. To measure larger forces, simply change the harder polymer piece and to detect smaller forces, use softer fiber-coated materials such as hydrogels.

In the future, researchers will use nanowires to understand the dynamics of biological cells and improve the device's sensitivity to make extremely sensitive, audible medical stethoscope. of each individual cell.