The ViscoDirect Software Module for Bruker’s NanoWizard BioAFM platform enables the automated, AI-assisted, viscoelastic analysis of living cells, tissues, and soft matter, significantly improving the speed and ease of atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments.
Biological samples and soft matter exhibit both elastic (solid-like) and viscous (fluid-like) behavior that determines how they sense and respond to mechanical forces. During AFM measurements, viscoelastic matter exhibits distinct loading and unloading profiles. Bruker’s ViscoDirect module enables fast, automated measurement of a sample’s elastic modulus and fluidity (viscosity), while accounting for sample thickness and force indentation.
Using supervised machine learning, this proprietary* fitting module extracts viscoelastic parameters from force-distance curves (FDC) during the AFM measurement, simplifying applications, such as mechanical gradient mapping, multiscale characterization of cellular structures, and quantification of the time-dependent behavior and viscoelastic response of hydrogels, polymers, and colloidal materials.
Only ViscoDirect delivers:
*Developed in collaboration with the group of Prof. R. Garcia and licensed from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).