DanioCTC: Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells from Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients in Zebrafish Xenografts.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) serve as crucial metastatic precursor cells, but their study in animal models has been hindered by their low numbers. To address this challenge, we present DanioCTC, an innovative xenograft workflow that overcomes the scarcity of patient-derived CTCs in animal models. By combining diagnostic leukapheresis (DLA), the Parsortix microfluidic system, flow cytometry, and the CellCelector setup, DanioCTC effectively enriches and isolates CTCs from metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients for injection into zebrafish embryos.

Implementing microwell slides for detection and isolation of single circulating tumor cells from complex cell suspensions.

Cell loss during detection and isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is a challenge especially when label-free pre-enrichment technologies are used without the aid of magnetic particles. Although microfluidic systems can remove the majority of "contaminating" white blood cells (WBCs), their remaining numbers are still impeding single CTC isolation, thus making additional separation steps needed. This study aimed to develop a workflow from blood-to-single CTC for complex cell suspensions by testing two microwell formats.

Cartilaginous spheroid-assembly design considerations for endochondral ossification: towards robotic-driven biomanufacturing.

Spheroids have become essential building blocks for biofabrication of functional tissues. Spheroid formats allow high cell-densities to be efficiently engineered into tissue structures closely resembling the native tissues. In this work, we explore the assembly capacity of cartilaginous spheroids (∼ 150m) in the context of endochondral bone formation.

Automated rare single cell picking with the ALS cellcelector™.

Molecular analysis of rare single cells like circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from whole blood patient samples bears multiple challenges. One of those challenges is the efficient and ideally loss-free isolation of CTCs over contaminating white and red blood cells. While there is a multitude of commercial and non-commercial systems available for the enrichment of CTCs their cell output does not deliver the purity most molecular analysis methods require.

Automated selection and harvesting of pluripotent stem cell colonies.

The ability of pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into specialized cells of all three germ layers, their capability to self-renew, and their amenability to genetic modification provide fascinating prospects for the generation of cell lines for biomedical applications. Therefore, stem cells must increasingly suffice in terms of industrial standards, and automation of critical or time-consuming steps becomes a fundamental prerequisite for their routine application. Cumbersome manual picking of individual stem cell colonies still represents the most frequently used method for passaging or derivation of clonal stem cell lines.

Development and optimization of a process for automated recovery of single cells identified by microengraving.

Microfabricated devices are useful tools for manipulating and interrogating large numbers of single cells in a rapid and cost-effective manner, but connecting these systems to the existing platforms used in routine high-throughput screening of libraries of cells remains challenging. Methods to sort individual cells of interest from custom microscale devices to standardized culture dishes in an efficient and automated manner without affecting the viability of the cells are critical. Combining a commercially available instrument for colony picking (CellCelector, AVISO GmbH) and a customized software module, we have established an optimized process for the automated retrieval of individual antibody-producing cells, secreting desirable antibodies, from dense arrays of subnanoliter containers.