ABSTRACT
This chapter examines techniques that measure a wide range of different physical properties of single cells. It considers some future opportunities for microfluidic measurements of single-cell physical properties. The field of microfluidics plays an important role in measuring the physical properties of single cells. Microfluidic devices provide the cell-sized sensitivity, single-cell manipulation, and high throughput necessary for making these measurements. Cell size (mass and volume) and cell density are just three of the cellular physical properties that have been measured in microfluidic devices. The chapter explains how cell mass is measured and also examines a technique that measures the volume of a cell using measurements of cell mass. Unlike Coulter counter measurements of cell volume, a mass-based measurement of cell volume is not affected by the shape or orientation of the cell. The chapter also examines some of the microfluidic Coulter counters.
