Advancing Realistic Force Modulation

Imposed by magnetic particles thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, nanomagnetic forces offer the stimulation of fine-tuned mechanical forces to biological cells. While biological cells assemble themselves into complex tissues and organs in their native environment, this mechanism gets lost when translated into high-throughput drug testing systems relying on artificial environments such as Petri dishes, multi wells, or biochips.

Tissue-scale force modulation

Drug discovery for brain diseases and disorders starts with a pre-clinical phase. During the pre-clinical phase, critical knowledge is gained about the efficacy and safety of the new drug target in a biologically artificial testing system. However, the artificial environment of the testing system lacks vital characteristics of the more complex native system based on tissue organization. This lack limits the actual knowledge gain about the drug’s effectiveness. It is also costly and may lead to false targets. One key element missing in the artificial testing systems (e.g., Petri dishes) is a complex topography of static and dynamic mechanical forces. Controlling these forces at a versatile set of amplitudes and at a scale of a few hundred nanometers smaller than the size of a human cell is highly challenging. However, doing so provides the potential to revolutionize drug discovery at the very early stage, reduce cost, increase knowledge about efficacy and safety, and provides the potential to bring a therapeutic target to the market earlier.