Silicon Biosystems DEPArray cell microarray

The DEPArray, from Silicon Biosystems, is an automated platform that is designed to isolate, characterise and collect rare cells, such as circulating tumour cells (CTCs), based on a lab-on-a-chip technology for downstream analysis.

Each cell is trapped in suspension into a cage. It is numbered, assigned to a recovery group and can be individually moved around and collected through a software-calculated pathway. Images of each cell in different emission channels and bright field are acquired and fluorescent signals are measured.

Relative threshold parameters can be set and associated with morphology for selection. Even as little as one single cell  can be collected out of the entire suspension, thus making the technology a suitable individual cell biology tool for cancer research and information support to cancer therapy.

Applications include: rare cell sorting; cell sorting of small loads; investigation of cell-cell interaction; single-cell immunophenotyping; drug delivery.