Spanish researchers have found that they can detect resonance frequencies in live human cells using precision equipment. Related research is expected to provide new ideas for disease diagnosis. Professor Javier Tamayo and other researchers from the Spanish National Research Council conducted experiments on live individual human breast cells. In multiple repeated experiments, researchers used gold and silicon to create a 50 micron long and 270 nanometer thick microcantilever, and extracted individual human breast cells from a culture dish. During this process, the vibration of the cells drove the cantilever to vibrate. Through laser instruments, researchers can finely measure this subtle movement. The new research paper has been published in the American journal Physical Review X. Life. Tamayo said that they had previously measured the characteristics of other cells using similar devices and noticed that sometimes the cantilever would move in subtle but unexpected ways. They inferred from this that those movements came from cells vibrating at a certain resonant frequency at the top of the cantilever. The research team estimated two resonance frequencies of human breast cells based on this: one between 10 kHz and 30 kHz, which is within the range of audible sound transitioning to ultrasound, and the other between 150 kHz and 180 kHz, which exceeds the upper limit of human hearing. John Allen, Associate Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hawaii, Mano, was not involved in this study. Alan commented that some theoretical models of resonance frequency in living cells were established 20 years ago, but have not been directly tested since then. This study is beneficial for further utilizing the vibration characteristics of individual cells to diagnose diseases, such as by detecting changes in cell resonance affected by diseases. (Lai Xin She)