High-throughput measurement of single-cell growth rates using serial microfluidic mass sensor arrays.

Nat Biotechnol
Authors
Abstract

Methods to rapidly assess cell growth would be useful for many applications, including drug susceptibility testing, but current technologies have limited sensitivity or throughput. Here we present an approach to precisely and rapidly measure growth rates of many individual cells simultaneously. We flow cells in suspension through a microfluidic channel with 10-12 resonant mass sensors distributed along its length, weighing each cell repeatedly over the 4-20 min it spends in the channel. Because multiple cells traverse the channel at the same time, we obtain growth rates for >60 cells/h with a resolution of 0.2 pg/h for mammalian cells and 0.02 pg/h for bacteria. We measure the growth of single lymphocytic cells, mouse and human T cells, primary human leukemia cells, yeast, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis. Our system reveals subpopulations of cells with divergent growth kinetics and enables assessment of cellular responses to antibiotics and antimicrobial peptides within minutes.

Year of Publication
2016
Journal
Nat Biotechnol
Volume
34
Issue
10
Pages
1052-1059
Date Published
2016 Oct
ISSN
1546-1696
DOI
10.1038/nbt.3666
PubMed ID
27598230
PubMed Central ID
PMC5064867
Links
Grant list
DP1 CA174420 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R33 CA191143 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
P30 CA014051 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
T32 GM008334 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
T32 CA009172 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
U54 CA143874 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States