title: Calibration of beam deflection produced by cellular forces in the 10(-9)--10(-6) gram range.
abstract: An experimental procedure and method of analysis are presented for calibration of a thin-beam force transducer. The beam transducer can be produced and calibrated with a minimum coefficient of 10 ng (10(-5) dyne) force per micron (10(-4) cm) deflection, i.e., kB approximately 0.1 dyne/cm. Since beam deflections on the order of 0.1 micron can be detected, forces of a few nanograms can be resolved. Such forces are common in mechanical experiments on microscopic bodies, e.g., biological cells, artificial membrane capsules, droplets, etc.
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002138:Calibration; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008433:Mathematics; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines; D013500:Surface Tension; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines