Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 27: Cell Mechanics II

AKB 27.5: Talk

Friday, March 31, 2006, 12:30–12:45, ZEU 260

Diagnosing oral epithelial carcinomas by elasticity-based flow cytometry — •Falk Wottawah, Julia Dietrich, Stefan Schinkinger, Bryan Lincoln, Franziska Lautenschlaeger, Susanne Ebert, and Jochen Guck — Fakultaet fuer Physik und Geowissenschaften, Universitaet Leipzig

Despite recent advances in identifying the genetic and proteomic patterns characteristically altered in cancers and related to different stages of cancer, it is difficult, if not impossible, to use this information as biomarker for distinguishing individual cells. Polymer physics offers a much more general and unifying approach based on known molecular changes in the cytoskeleton, and its importance for the mechanical properties of the cell, during the progression of cancer. By measuring cellular deformability as a characteristic, cumulative marker of the various molecular changes using a microfluidic optical stretcher, it is possible to monitor the progression of diseases that affect the cytoskeleton, such as cancer. We establish the applicability of this innovative approach by using small sample sizes for diagnosing oral epithelial carcinomas in a clinical setting.