This proposal is to develop instrumentation to study the morphology and organization of a cell during detachment of the cell from a surface. The detachment will be caused by aspiration through a micropipette; observations of the cell-substrate interface will be made using total internal reflection fluorescence. Cell adhesion plays a crucial role in both biomedical and bioprocessing problems such as bioreactor design, tumor cell metastasis and the triggering of inflammatory responses. The proposed methodology should greatly facilitate quantitative, engineering-oriented research in these important areas.
