A Multi-Modality CMOS Sensor Array for Cell-Based Assay and Drug Screening.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Microtechnology
• Cellular Biology

Background:

• Characterizing cell physiological responses is crucial for understanding cellular functions and developing new therapies.
• Existing methods often require multiple instruments, limiting efficiency and holistic analysis.
• Need for integrated platforms enabling simultaneous multi-modal cellular sensing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a fully integrated multi-modality CMOS cellular sensor array.
• To enable simultaneous characterization of diverse cell physiological responses at the pixel level.
• To demonstrate the utility of the sensor array in cell-based assays and drug screening.

Main Methods:

• Development of a CMOS sensor array with nine parallel pixel groups, each containing tri-modality sensor pixels.
• Integration of four sensing modalities: extracellular voltage recording, cellular impedance mapping, optical detection (shadow imaging and bioluminescence), and thermal monitoring.
• Independent pixel-level configuration for multi-modal sensing with a resolution of 80 μm × 100 μm.

Main Results:

• Successful demonstration of a fully integrated multi-modality CMOS cellular sensor array.
• Capability for simultaneous extracellular voltage recording, impedance mapping, optical detection, and thermal monitoring.
• Validation of the sensor array's functionality and benefits in biological experiments with living cells.

Conclusions:

• The proposed multi-modality sensor array facilitates holistic cell characterization and joint-modality monitoring on the same sample.
• This technology offers significant advantages for advanced cell-based assays and high-throughput drug screening.
• The integrated platform paves the way for more comprehensive and efficient cellular analysis.