Atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based techniques have been used to measure cytoskeleton material properties without much attention to cell shape.  A continuum-based cell model, which uses as input the force-displacement response obtained with a modified AFM setup and relates the membrane-cytoskeleton elastic behavior to the cell geometry, while treating all other subcellular components suspended in the cytoplasmic liquid (gel) as an incompressible fluid, is presented and validated by experimental results. 
AFM