This review highlights innovations in measuring electrical signals and mechanical properties in single cells, suggesting micro‐ and nanopipette methods may enhance disease diagnosis.
Studying electrical and mechanical signals is crucial for understanding cellular behavior and underlying mechanisms. Among available measurement methods, micro‐ and nanopipette‐based techniques have emerged as promising tools for assessing both signals due to their biocompatibility, flexibility, versatility, and ease of integration. However, existing studies typically employ them for isolated tasks, either electrical recording or mechanical probing, lacking a unified framework to integrate multimodalities across contexts, restricting their combined potential. To overcome these limitations, this review focuses on recent advances in single‐cell signal measurement using micro‐ and nanopipettes and introduces the principles, operating modes, and key innovations of representative techniques. Furthermore, specific applications of micro‐ and nanopipettes are highlighted at molecular and cellular scales, including research on single ion channels, molecular interactions, biophysical and functional properties, and disease diagnosis and treatment. These applications have transformed the landscape of biological research, offering new insights into complex cellular processes. Finally, the related challenges regarding autonomous robotic measurement operation, highly reproducible data acquisition, and synchronized multidimensional signal recording are discussed, current preliminary solution strategies and future prospects are outlined. In conclusion, the pivotal role of micro‐ and nanopipettes in advancing biological research is highlighted, and further attention to their promising applications is encouraged.
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Wang et al. (2025) studied this question.
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