Measurements of elastic properties of cells using high-frequency time-resolved acoustic microscopy

A new high-frequency time-resolved acoustic microscope was developed at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Biomedical Engineering. It is based on an optical microscope from olympus and it operates in reflection mode. The duration of the pulse is 5 ns and the central frequency is 860 MHz. The new microscope permits fluorescence microscopy and scanning acoustic microscopy at the same time, which are used for synchronous optical and acoustical investigation of cell components with changing cellular stiffness.