E-Mail IMAGE: Alteration in biomechanical properties of PANC-1 cells exposed to 5 μM cytochalasin D (CytD) in normoxia and hypoxia. (A) Time trace of Young's modulus E in normoxia (n = 5)... view more Credit: Correspondence to - Yongki Choi - yongki.choi@ndsu.edu Oncotarget published "Dynamic cellular biomechanics in responses to chemotherapeutic drug in hypoxia probed by atomic force spectroscopy" which reported that by exploiting single-cell, force spectroscopy methods, the authors probed biophysical and biomechanical kinetics of brain, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancer cells with standard chemotherapeutic drugs in normoxia and hypoxia over 12-24 hours. After exposure to the drugs, they found that brain, breast, and pancreatic cancer cells became approximately 55-75% less stiff, while prostate cancer cells became more stiff, due to either drug-induced disruption or reinforcement of cytoskeletal structure.