Monitoring dynamic interactions of tumor cells with tissue and immune cells in a lab-on-a-chip

We have developed a complementary cell analysis method to assess the dynamic interaction of tumour cells with resident tissue and immune cells using optical light scattering and impedance spectroscopy to shed light on tumour malignancy. The combination of electroanalytical and optical biosensing technologies integrated in a lab-on-a-chip allows continuous, label-free and non-invasive probing of dynamic cell-to-cell interactions between adherent and non-adherent co-cultures, thus providing real-time insights how cancer cells interact and respond with their microenvironment under physiologically relevant conditions. While the study of adherent co-cultures is important for the understanding and suppression of tumour invasion, the analysis of the interaction of tumour cells with non-adherent immune cells plays a vital role in cancer immunotherapy research. For the first time direct cell-to-cell interactions of tumour cells with bead-activated primary T cells was continuously assessed using effector cell to target cell ratio (E:T) of 10:1