Micro-spectroscopy opens new routes for diagnostics

Just as mechanical properties and chemical compositions of materials are of fundamental importance in buildings, the cells that comprise every living organism have different properties and shapes depending on their function and state. Uncontrolled modifications in cell elasticity, or in the elasticity of any biological tissue in general, are symptoms and effects of pathologies—hardened coronary arteries causing heart problems, weakened bones inducing orthopedic complications, elastic changes in corneal tissue provoking ocular pathologies, etc. A non-invasive experimental technique that can probe in-situ the elastic and the biochemical properties of cells and tissues would be a strategic diagnostic tool.