Cellular mechanosensitivity plays a key role in regulating critical biological processes such as blood vessel constriction, pain perception, breathing and many more. Numerous diseases, including cancer, involve dysfunction of cellular mechanosensitivity, but closely studying this mechanism has been mostly limited to the use of expensive technologies that do not allow for several mechanoreceptors to be studied at the same time. Researchers from the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm), the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the Université de Montpellier have now introduced a new way to study cellular mechanosensitivity, in the form of a DNA origami-based “nano-robot” capable of applying fine-tuned forces down to piconewton resolution.
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