Custom Indentation System for Mechanical Characterization of Soft Matter

Soft, hydrated samples of biomaterials and live tissues are hard to characterize with standard equipment designed for engineering materials. To accommodate millimeter-scale samples with sub-kPa moduli, we designed a cantilever-based indentation system using piezoelectric actuators and capacitive sensors compatible with a variety of probe tips and sample holders. Embryonic mouse hearts, rat gastrointestinal tissues, human pancreas, and rat brain tissue have all been successfully characterized using this system.