A New Method for Characterization of Single Cell Using System Identification

The mechanical properties of cells reflect the state of macro-organism. While many approaches are available for performing mechanical property investigations on cells, to characterize dynamic mechanical property of a single cell is challenging. We measure the mechanical properties of a single cell using an Atomic Force Microscopy and develop a novel method to characterize dynamic mechanical property of a single cell based on the theory of system identification. We evaluated the new method by comparing its performance with the other methods in classifying different kinds of cells. The results show that the method we proposed outperformed other methods by achieving average classification accuracy of more than 90%. This work provides a new attempt for characterization of a single cell system, which is of great significance for studying the dynamic changes of the mechanical properties of single cells and analyzing or controlling the state of cells.