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The presentation will begin with a general overview of situations with known links between cell nanomechanics and human health/diseases.  This will be followed by a detailed description of new experimental methods capable of probing the nonlinear deformation of cells in direct stretch.  Experimental results of large deformation of human red blood cells using optical tweezers will be compared with predictions of three-dimensional computations at the macroscopic and molecular levels.  Attention will then be shifted to the direct experimental measurement of picoNewton-level force versus displacement relationships of single living cells that are infested, for controlled time periods, with the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.  In particular, the effects of systematic structural changes in the cell due to the presence of the parasite on the mechanical deformability of the blood cell will be experimentally demonstrated by recourse to the optical tweezers method. The presentation will conclude with a brief summary of a number of ongoing multidisciplinary research interactions in studies of nanomechanics of single cells and biomolecules and their implications for human diseases.

Professor Suresh received his Sc.D. from M.I.T. and, after post-doctoral research at UC Berkeley and several years at Brown University, he joined M.I.T. as the R.P. Simmons Professor in 1993.  He has contributed to the area of thin films, mechanical properties, fracture and fatigue, design of graded materials, and coupled properties of small-volume structures, and, most recently, to the study of nanomechanics of single biomolecules and cells.  Professor Suresh is author or co-author of approximately 200 research articles, co-editor of five books and co-inventor of 14 US and international patents.  He serves as the Coordinating Editor of the international journal Acta Materialia and as a frequent consultant to industry and government. Among his numerous awards and honors are election to Fellow of TMS (2002), ASME (1996), the American Ceramic Society (1995) and American Society for Materials International (1994).  He was elected to the prestigious US Academy of Engineering in 2002.