Using Ultrasound To Move Cells and Build Tissue

Manipulating individual cells is a difficult task. Some work has been done on so-called optical tweezers that can push cells around with beams of light, but while they are good at moving a single cell around, they are not intended for manipulating larger numbers of cells.

New research conducted at Caltech has created an alternative: air-filled proteins, produced by genetically engineered cells, that can be pushed around—along with the cells containing them—by ultrasound waves. A paper describing the work appears in the journal Science Advances.