Nano-Scale Straws For Non-Destructive Monitoring Of A Cell’s Interior, Stanford University Study

Routine lab work to examine a host of biological parameters often depends on destructively lysing, or bursting, cells to release their contents for measurement. While this simple technique has been used for decades, it creates a constraint on protocol design because a given cell can only be analyzed once (when lysed) in a snapshot-like manner. A new technique developed at Stanford University enables researchers to non-destructively sample a cell’s interior, thus allowing for dynamic monitoring of the same cell over multiple time-points.