The collaboration started during the summer of 2009, when Sunda-Meya, accompanied by Xavier undergraduates Desiree Smith and Jonathan Corley, performed research with Brujic and Grier under the auspices of the existing NYU MRSEC Faculty-Student Team research program. Capitalizing on recent advances in AFM and multifunctional imaging, Sunda-Meya and Brujic will use AFM to investigate the surface morphology of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and interaction forces between specific molecules immobilized on the tip and the cell surface. Anticipating different force signatures between malignant and normal cells, these experiments will create a new diagnostic tool for the detection of cancer cells, as well as means to understand physicochemical attributes, at the fundamental level, associated with cancerous tissue.