Using buoyant mass to measure the growth of single cells

• Main Authors: Godin, Michel (Contributor), Son, Sungmin (Contributor), Tzur, Amit (Author), Jorgensen, Paul (Author), Kirschner, Marc W. (Author), Delgado, Francisco Feijo (Contributor), Grover, William H. (Contributor), Bryan, Andrea Kristine (Contributor), Payer, Kristofor Robert (Contributor), Grossman, Alan D. (Contributor), Manalis, Scott R. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Microsystems Technology Laboratories (Contributor), Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group, 2014-01-13T19:06:33Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We used a suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) combined with picoliter-scale microfluidic control to measure buoyant mass and determine the 'instantaneous' growth rates of individual cells. The SMR measures mass with femtogram precision, allowing rapid determination of the growth rate in a fraction of a complete cell cycle. We found that for individual cells of Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mouse lymphoblasts, heavier cells grew faster than lighter cells.
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (MIT Center for Cell Decision Processes Grant P50GM68762)
United States. Army Research Office (Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies Grant DAAD1903D0004)