| Description |
Single cell resolution has become increasingly important as researchers reassess the skewed information that arises from population-based averages. However, almost all methods of single cell analysis for growth are compromised by large time investments, hefty costs for specialized equipment, or invasive methods which affect cell health. While methods which are easy to setup, low-cost, or non-invasive exist, they typically only succeed in one of the three. I present and validate an approach to conduct digital cell growth assays on a microwell array platform. By sparsely seeding a microwell array, cell counts over time can be used to approximate the growth of the founder cell(s) for each well. Experiments with both nonadherent and adherent cell lines demonstrate the adaptability of this assay. This method presents an easy, low-cost, label free method to measure cell-tocell heterogeneity in growth as a complement to more costly single cell analysis techniques or could be adapted to accommodate other measurements. |
