🎶Can you feel it?🎶 What? The cell viscosity, of course!

Happy to share our new paper on quantifying cytoplasmic viscosity in colorectal cancer cells.
While GEMs (genetically encoded multimeric nanoparticles) have been used before to probe the viscoelastic properties of the cytosol, many previous studies relied on single-particle tracking (SPT). In practice, that often meant working with cells showing low GEM expression and using more advanced/less accessible experimental setups.
In this work, we show that differential dynamic microscopy (DDM) can be used as a powerful alternative. By analyzing the collective fluctuations of GEMs, DDM provides a more robust and accessible way to extract quantitative information on cytoplasmic viscosity.

And on a personal note: I am especially happy to see Guillermo leading this work, and very impressed by the dedication and excellent work from Steven throughout the project.
A very nice team effort, and a reminder that sometimes improving how we measure biology is exactly what allows us to understand it better.
🔎 Curious? Check it out here.