A novel miniature cell retainer for correlative high-content analysis of individual untethered non-adherent cells

The importance of research involving non-adherent cell lines, primary cells and blood cells is generally undisputed. However, the task of investigating the complexity and heterogeneity of these cells calls for their long-run monitoring at a single-cell resolution. Such a capability is currently unavailable without having to use disruptive cell tethering. The present Cell Retainer (CR) concept enables high-content correlative multi-parametric measurements, from the functional to molecular level, of the same living individual non-adherent cells within a population. Thereby, despite extensive long-term bio-manipulations, the cells preserve their identity without tethering. Several exemplary experiments, using a microscope-slide-based version of the CR, are presented, which could not be performed by other state of the art methods.