The Cytomass Monitor is able to measure the mass of even single adherent cells with 0.1% mass and 10-ms temporal resolution.
Overview
The only fast and accurate cell balance
Cells tightly regulate their mass and volume during development and homeostasis. Though this regulation is fundamental to proper functioning of the cell, it is so far poorly understood, mainly because tools available thus far can only reasonably determine the volume of spherical suspended cells (~1% population accuracy, ~20% single cell accuracy), not their mass and not under normal adherent growth conditions.
Together with Prof. Daniel J. Müller of the ETH Zürich and Dr. David Martínez-Martín of the University of Sydney, Nanosurf is developing the Cytomass Monitor. The Cytomass Monitor is able to measure the mass of even single adherent cells with 0.1% mass and 10‑ms temporal resolution.
System overview
The following video illustrates the general working principle of the Cytomass Monitor:
An integrated solution that combines mass monitoring with optical microscopy and long-term cell cultivation
The Cytomass Monitor is the only research tool currently available that allows the recording of time-lapse mass measurements in physiological conditions, while simultaneously conducting fluorescence and/or differential interference contrast microscopy (DIC) in order to link cell mass dynamics to cell morphology and state.
For further experimental details and results, please click here.
The Cytomass Monitor allows novel research in the fields of cell mass or volume regulation, cell migration, cell nutrition, cell division and cell cycle progression, fat cell storage and metabolism, viral infection-related processes, ion channel properties, drug screening for drugs targeting pathways linked to cell growth, new therapies for cancer, aging, obesity, type 2 diabetes, neurodegeneration, and other diseases linked to a deregulation of growth control.
Groundbreaking research
In their recent Nature publication, Martínez-Martín et al. observed that the mass of living mammalian cells intrinsically fluctuates by around 1–4% over timescales of seconds throughout the cell cycle. Comparing control cells with cells exposed to for example mercury chloride link these mass fluctuations to the basic cellular processes of water transport and ATP synthesis. These perturbation experiments show the power of the Cytomass monitor to study the effect of additives or other pharmaceutical components on cell mass development.
It was also shown that growth and cell cycle progression are arrested in cells infected with vaccinia virus, but that mass fluctuations continue until cell death. Their measurements suggest that all living cells show fast and subtle mass fluctuations throughout the cell cycle.
The Cytomass technology is accurate and fast, capable of measuring the mass of even single adherent cells with 0.1% mass and 10 ms temporal resolution, as is illustrated by the experimental data shown here.
Data courtesy: Biophysics Lab, ETH Zurich
At the forefront of science
Interested in becoming a Cytomass Monitor pioneer yourself? Then contact us now to be among the first researchers to obtain access to this unique instrument, which provides new insights into the most fundamental processes in cell biology.