Tough Cell

Before climbing Everest, mountaineers take a series of tests, simulating harsh environments and monitoring how their bodies deal with extreme stress. Here we see something similar for cells – an artificial scaffold of tiny red fibres a bit like an assault course (but ~10,000 times smaller). In their natural environment, cells latch onto different surfaces in their extracellular matrix, using adhesion to move and grow. Researchers designed these arrays with fibres assessed for stiffness and strength using atomic force microscopy. Kept happy with nutrients, human cells stretch out between the lower layer of fibres (cell highlighted in purple) or the top (blue) over eight hours under a high-powered microscope. Measuring how the fibres deform in 3D as the cells move allows researchers to estimate the forces they generate, revealing details about their hidden adventures inside our bodies.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Video from work by Pierre Ucla and colleagues
• Institut Curie, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, CNRS UMR168, Physics of Cells and Cancer, Paris, France
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), October 2025