Phasefocus Livecyte for population heterogeneity and tracking single cell lineage

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When measuring and comparing the effect of different treatments on cell populations, traditional imaging techniques can often influence the response of the cells, affecting their overall behaviour. The need to follow cells of interest for extended periods without leaving the large field of view (FOV), and without any noticeable perturbation to their natural behaviour, has led to the development of Livecyte’s ptychographic QPI imaging.

Livecyte uses label-free, low-illumination imaging to allow thousands of individual cells to be measured for days or weeks, meaning cell behaviour is close to real-life conditions. Measurements reflect the differences caused by the treatments and not any unwanted influence from the instrument or fluorescent labels. This makes it possible to monitor even the most sensitive live cells, such as stem cells and heterogeneous primary cancer cells, for long periods of time (up to multiple weeks) in a 96-well plate format.

Conventional imaging cannot capture the in-depth growth profile of cells, relying instead on cell counts and confluence of cells. This obscures abnormal growth patterns where cells are observed to grow larger, but not proliferate at the same rate. In contrast, Livecyte can extract the changes in morphology and motion of each cell over time and in addition measure cell dry mass. This property measures the amount of matter in each cell, which independently quantifies true cell growth from cell division events and should lead to a fuller characterisation of cell phenotypic properties.

For more information: https://www.atascientific.com.au/products/phasefocus-livecyte/.