Large Area Precision Cell Traction Force Measurements Using Gold Disk Mounted Micro-Pillars

Detecting cell traction forces using conventional waveguide or fluorescent-coated micro-pillars requires imaging using high magnification (60×) lenses for precision measurement. The fields-of-view are typically small. This work presents a novel gold disk micro-pillars (GDMP) platform that enables concurrent and high precision cell traction force measurements over a large area (0.60mm
²
) with 75nm pillar displacement precision using low magnification (10×) optics.