Cells dancing harmonic duets could enable personalized cancer therapies
Mechanical engineers at Duke University are using two electronic"voices" singing a harmonic duet to control suspended particles and cells in new and valuable ways. Their prototype device can form and rotate a single-layer crystal from a group of particles, create arbitrary shapes with a given number of particles, and move pairs of biological cells together and apart again hundreds of times.
The new device works by placing sound-creating transducers on each side of a small square chamber filled with liquid. These four transducers work in step with those directly across from them, forming two pairs. One creates patterns in the chamber horizontally and the other vertically. The interaction of these two complex, quickly changing sound wave patterns creates dynamic abilities never before demonstrated within the field.
Moving to individual particle manipulation, the paper demonstrates particles coaxed into three different formations bearing a striking resemblance to the letters O, D and K. The device then pairs together dozens of single particles like teenagers at a school dance and shows that it can pull each pair apart and put them back together again more than a thousand times.
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