How does a cell know when to stop growing and start dividing? And how do cells in a population achieve size homeostasis? Fundamental questions such as these are tricky to answer because measurements of growth, size, and cell division are generally based on averages from cell populations, which lack precision. A newly upgraded tool from Scott Manalis’s lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) now allows researchers to examine these parameters in individual cells. To measure the mass of single cells, the team devised a machine in 2007 called a suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) that measures the change in resonant frequency of a cantilever when a cell is passed back and forth across it. The bigger the cell, the greater the shift in resonant frequency.
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