Periodic Reporting for period 4 - NanoPokers (Deciphering cell heterogeneity in tumors using arrays of nanowires to controllably poke single cells in longitudinal studies)
Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2022-08-31
Cancer is a systemic disease, involving many cells that interact and evolve over time in a complex manner, which current technologies cannot grasp. It is therefore crucial to investigate cancer at the single cell level and over time. To address this issue, the Nanopokers project aims at achieving global monitoring of individual cell responses to stimuli/perturbation in real-time. This is being pursued by combining super resolution live-cell imaging and the development of sensors, as well as injection devices based on vertical nanostructure arrays. The newly developed technology will bring new knowledge on cancer, such as the origin of cancer relapse and how individual tumor cells respond to treatment.
Arrays of vertical nanostructures have been fabricated to gain access to the cell interior, for both sensing and injection purposes. In this part of the project, only immortalized cells are used. The transcriptional state (i.e. what genes are being expressed) of individual cells is probed using molecular beacons.
By assessing the transcriptional state of individual cells, the project will shed light on cancer cell response to treatment at the individual cell level.