In a new article published this month in the Journal of Visualized Experiments, the TIME Lab demonstrates a robust and quantitative method to evaluate the material properties of single cells. This study was co-led by undergraduate Luke Holen and his postdoctoral mentor Killian Onwudiwe, along with TIME Lab graduate students Julian Najera and Maksym Zarodniuk, in collaboration with the Soboyejo Lab at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This procedure uses a shear-flow based assay that recapitulates fluid flows that cells experience in the body (e.g., in blood circulation, or in the tumor microenvironment) to evaluate cell viscoelastic properties such as stiffness and viscosity. This work reveals how mechanical biomarkers can distinguish normal cells from cancerous cells without the need for protein or nucleic acid based detection.