Fig. 1

Overview of a nanoindentation experiment. a Schematics of a nanoindentation experiment performed with a spherical probe of radius R indenting over a compliant material with Young’s modulus E. The main geometrical relationships between the displacement z, indentation \(\delta\) and deflection x are indicated. b FluidFM cantilever with attached microbead over a confluent monolayer of HEK-293T cells. c Typical experimental dataset of 127 force-indentation curves obtained on cells. The blue line is the average curve \(\left\langle F(\delta ) \right\rangle\), and the cyan band is extended over one standard deviation