Live cells from most of the membranous tissues such as alveoli are subjected to equi-biaxial strain originated from their extracellular environments. To understand the role of equi-biaxial strain in live cells, a number of engineered methods have been developed for applying such mechanical strain to in vitro cultured cells. Among these methods, deforming a flexible substrate on a circular platen has been widely used [1], and has been miniaturized into millimeter scale for parallel stretching assay (Figure 1a). Nonetheless, the strain homogeneity becomes increasingly challenging at smaller scale, since it requires an ultra-thin membrane, an indentation platen with well controlled dimension, and the highly precise alignment. This obviously increases the fabrication and operation complexities. Devices that deliver homogeneous strain with minimal fabrication and assembling complexities are needed.

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