Single cell drug response measurements via live cell interferometry
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for measuring a cellular response to an environment comprising:
- (a) placing a test cell in a first environment;
(b) using an interference microscope to perform live cell interferometry and thereby determine a measure proportional to the mass of said test cell, where said live cell interferometry comprises measuring the fractional phase shift between a test beam of light propagating through said test cell and a reference beam of light with said interference microscope and integrating said phase shift over the area of said test cell to provide said measure proportional to the mass of said test cell;
(c) placing a reference cell in a second environment;
(d) using an interference microscope to perform live cell interferometry and thereby determine a measure proportional to the mass of said reference cell, where said live cell interferometry comprises measuring the fractional phase shift between a test beam of light propagating through said reference cell and a reference beam of light with said interference microscope and integrating said phase shift over the area of said reference cell to provide said measure proportional to the mass of said reference cell; and
(e) determining the difference between the measure determined in (b) and the measure determined in (d) to thereby provide a measure of the change in mass of said test cell in response to the first environment.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A central question in cancer therapy is how individual cells within a population of tumor cells respond to drugs designed to arrest their growth. However, the absolute growth of cells, their change in physical mass, whether cancerous or physiologic, is difficult to measure directly with traditional techniques. Embodiments of the invention provide live cell interferometry (LCI) for rapid, realtime quantification of cell mass in cells exposed to a changing environment. Overall, LCI provides a conceptual advance for assessing cell populations to identify, monitor, and measure single cell responses, such as to therapeutic drugs.
-
Citations
14 Claims
-
1. A method for measuring a cellular response to an environment comprising:
-
(a) placing a test cell in a first environment; (b) using an interference microscope to perform live cell interferometry and thereby determine a measure proportional to the mass of said test cell, where said live cell interferometry comprises measuring the fractional phase shift between a test beam of light propagating through said test cell and a reference beam of light with said interference microscope and integrating said phase shift over the area of said test cell to provide said measure proportional to the mass of said test cell; (c) placing a reference cell in a second environment; (d) using an interference microscope to perform live cell interferometry and thereby determine a measure proportional to the mass of said reference cell, where said live cell interferometry comprises measuring the fractional phase shift between a test beam of light propagating through said reference cell and a reference beam of light with said interference microscope and integrating said phase shift over the area of said reference cell to provide said measure proportional to the mass of said reference cell; and (e) determining the difference between the measure determined in (b) and the measure determined in (d) to thereby provide a measure of the change in mass of said test cell in response to the first environment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
Specification