The 3D microenvironment of cells in vivo plays an important role in biological systems, specifically in cell-cell interaction. However, it is quite challenging to replicate such a cellular microenvironment in 2D in vitro models. Several studies identified significant differences in 2D vs 3D in vitro models – impacting cell proliferation, differentiation, the release of biomolecules, cellular communication and many others. Thus, gaining an in-depth understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms in the relevant physiological microenvironment is crucial.
To address this challenge, we have developed the innovative CellCity System that enables multimodal analysis of thousands of dynamic cell-cell interactions in 3D microenvironment at single-cell resolution. By encapsulating thousands of single cells or cell pairs on the CellCity Array Chip, now researchers can track various functional phenotypes in the temporal space. These observations can also be co-related with end-point measurements (e.g. immunostaining or FISH analysis) on the same chip for insightful characterization.
Together with Evident, we have established a largely automated workflow solution, that allows researchers to identify their cells of interest on the chip based on advanced AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms for high-resolution imaging on IXplore microscopes, thus highly reducing time-consuming imaging routines. Learn more about the workflow in the technote.
