Overview

Spheroids, organoids, stem cell clusters other types of 3D cultures are important biological systems for the discovery of signals responsible for both normal development and abnormal disease states of solid tumors. 3D cell culture models provide a more natural context for examining cell growth, division and differentiation. In addition, 3D cell models are valuable for assessing the efficacy of drug candidates for cancer therapeutics because they can mimic the dynamic interplay between tumor and the host environment.

Currently, the bottleneck in 3D cell culture analysis is a result of the slow (less than one spheroid per second), tedious methods of interrogation such as high-resolution microscopy. Microscopy requires 3D be immobilized in a matrix. This starves them of the nutrients and growth factors they need to function and prevents the medication being tested from adequately penetrating. The Velocyt revolutionizes 3D cellular analysis by analyzing tens of thousands of spheroids per second while maintaining them in their preferred habitat of liquid cell culture media. In addition, the spheroids are returned undiluted and unchanged allowing for subsequent analysis. That means the types of high throughput screening campaigns normally associated with flow cytometry and single cell analysis can now be performed on 3D cellular models.

• Analyze 1,000’s to 10,000’s of events/second depending on size
• Analyze a wide range of particles from single cell to intact multicellular cellular structures
• Analyze fluorescence distribution within structures