# Robust microdroplet-based mechanical probes for wide-ranging mechanobiology applications

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2021 · $434,815

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Mechanical cues critically affect cell behaviors that are central to embryonic development, organ formation and
the maintenance of tissue architecture and homeostasis. Both mechanical forces and the material properties of
the cellular microenvironment (e.g., stiffness) are known to direct stem cell differentiation as well as alter the
progression of malignant phenotypes during tumor progression. While it is generally acknowledged that
mechanical forces and the material properties of the cellular microenvironment play a key role in the control of
cell behaviors in vitro, the lack of technologies to perform quantitative measurements of mechanics in 3D
cellular microenvironments has considerably hindered our ability to understand the role of mechanics in more
physiologically relevant environments. PI Campas and coworkers have recently reported a novel methodology
that enables direct in vivo and in situ mechanical measurements within 3D cellular microenvironments,
including living tissues, for the first time. While groundbreaking, these methods, which make use of
fluorescently-labeled, magnetically-responsive microdroplets of perfluorinated oil as mechanical sensors and
actuators, remain strongly limited in scope because of current chemistry used to prepare the microdroplets.
The current finicky chemical composition of the microdroplets strongly limits the scope of the technique,
hampers the reproducibility of the measurements and precludes the dissemination of these methods to the
wide biological and biomedical communities. In this multi-PI technology development grant, Campas, Sletten,
and Zink team up to solve the existing problems with the microdroplet technology by developing new robust
chemistries, including fluorinated surfactants, fluorophores, and magnetic nanoparticles, to enable accurate
mechanical measurements with microdroplets in a wide range of biological systems, from living tissues and
organs to organoids, tumors and 3D cell culture. In Aim 1, we will develop surfactants and fluorophores to
properly control the droplet’s interfacial tension, the cell droplet interactions and their visualization in 3D
multicellular systems. In Aim 2, we will develop robust perfluorocarbon-based ferrofluids with controlled
interfacial tension, cell-droplet interactions and with strong magnetic properties enabling the application of
larger forces. In Aim 3, we will test the functionality of the newly synthesized compounds and assess their
performance in mechanical measurements in well-established 3D multicellular systems, both in vitro and in
vivo. Upon completion of these aims, we will achieve an optimized microdroplet technology that is ready for
commercialization and can be used in a wide range of systems, including living tissues, organoids, embryoid
bodies, tumors and 3D cell culture, thereby making accessible these new tools for the study of mechanical
cues (mechanobiology) in vivo to the entire biological and biomedical communitie...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10242779
- **Project number:** 5R01GM135380-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Otger Campas
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $434,815
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-20 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10242779

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10242779, Robust microdroplet-based mechanical probes for wide-ranging mechanobiology applications (5R01GM135380-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10242779. Licensed CC0.

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