Abstract

Single-Cell Dynamic Profiling of Cytokine Secreting Immune Cell

Christophe Vedrine, Head of biological microsystems and advanced optics engineering unit, Bioaster

Over the past decade, single cell technologies have enabled a new scientific breakthrough on many fields, including microbiology, immunology, drug discovery and cancer research. These technologies have provided a tremendous insight into our understanding of biological processes. We have developed a simple and robust single cell microfluidic platform to assess cell viability, endocytosis and cytokine secretion over time. This technology is based on the co-encapsulation of single cells and functionalized nanobeads in 50-pL droplets. The bioassay was engineered so that endocytosis is no longer a limitation but becomes a readout. This is of particular importance for cells having a high endocytosis activity such as monocytes. The workflow was design to improve of the overall sensitivity and robustness of the technology. Several key features such as nanobead functionalization, microfluidic chamber fabrication, as well as a customized image processing algorithm will be presented. This technology has been successfully applied to clinical samples (blood from healthy donors or septic shock patients). Our system is able to early detect TNF-alpha secretion anergy of monocytes occurring during sepsis. We are currently using our microfluidic platform for characterizing a drug candidate to treat juvenile arthritis.