• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Departments
    • Aerospace Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    • Engineering Science
    • Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Nuclear Engineering
  • News
    • Berkeley Engineer magazine
    • Social media
    • News videos
    • News digest (email)
    • Press kit
  • Events
    • Events calendar
    • Homecoming
    • Cal Day
    • Commencement
    • View from the Top
    • Kuh Lecture Series
    • Minner Lecture
  • College directory
  • For staff & faculty
Berkeley Engineering

Educating leaders. Creating knowledge. Serving society.

  • About
    • Facts & figures
    • Rankings
    • Mission & values
    • Equity & inclusion
    • Voices of Berkeley Engineering
    • Leadership team
    • Milestones
    • Facilities
    • Maps
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate admissions
    • Graduate admissions
    • Visit
    • Maps
    • Admissions events
    • K-12 outreach
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate programs
    • Majors & minors
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Graduate programs
    • Graduate Guide
    • Innovation & entrepreneurship
    • Kresge Engineering Library
    • International programs
    • Executive education
  • Students
    • Advising & counseling
    • Programs
    • Academic support
    • Student life
    • Wellness & inclusion
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Degree requirements
    • Forms & petitions
    • Resources
  • Research & faculty
    • Centers & institutes
    • Undergrad research
    • Faculty
  • Connect
    • Alumni
    • Industry
    • Give
    • Stay in touch
Home > News > Better breast cancer screening
Illustration courtesy the researchers

Better breast cancer screening

Cover of Fall 2018 Berkeley Engineer magazine, featuring civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. student Katya Rakhmatulina at the Illilouette Creek Basin in Yosemite National Park.
November 14, 2018
This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Fall 2018

Over the course of her lifetime, a woman in the United States has a one in eight chance of developing breast cancer. Key to the diagnosis is a biopsy, where cells are visually examined under a microscope by a pathologist. But microscopy inspection isn’t totally quantitative, and cancer cells may be missed or normal cells mistaken for cancer cells. Now, technology developed by mechanical engineering professor Lydia Sohn and her research group could dramatically improve the accuracy of early breast cancer detection. Their technology, called mechano-node-pore sensing, or mechano-NPS, uses microfluidics — an inexpensive process in which small volumes of liquids flow under pressure through extremely small tubes, or micropores — to measure the relative softness or stiffness of isolated breast cells. Previously, the researchers had discovered that cancerous breast cells travel through the micropores more quickly than non-malignant cells because they are more pliable, or elastic. Using mechano-NPS, the researchers are now able to distinguish between two key subpopulations of breast cells that are central to breast cancer development. The researchers believe their technology should be applicable to samples from different biopsy procedures, and hope it can be expanded to test for other types of cancers.

Topics: Health, Mechanical engineering, Research
  • Contact
  • Give
  • Privacy
  • UC Berkeley
  • Accessibility
  • Nondiscrimination
  • instagram
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • youtube
© 2023 UC Regents