ARRALYZE CellShepherd – Hundreds of thousands of individual cells on an array
The results of laser technology in PCB prototyping are impressive. But it can be done even more precisely and with completely different requirements for the processes. With the LIDE process, LPKF has developed a technology with which microstructures can be introduced into glass substrates with a high aspect ratio, close together and 100% defect-free. Glass, as an inert material with excellent optical properties, is the ideal vehicle for reproducible test series in which contamination must be avoided.
This ability is interesting for researchers and developers from the bioscience scene: The process can be used to produce high-precision glass arrays with uniform nanowells for the analysis of individual cells and cell populations. Different layouts ensure flexibility. They enable use in research and development in the areas of cell and gene therapy, antibody production and drug production. The wells reduce the required sample volumes down to the picoliter range. Due to the tight density of wells, one array replaces eight conventional microtiter plates. Thanks to the reduction in size of the array, reproducible analyzes of rare samples with little material, such as a tumor biopsy, can be carried out at all.
LPKF has created a highly specialized laboratory device around the glass array - the ARRALYZE CellShepherd . It enables the screening of large cell populations in a sterile, air-conditioned environment. An automatic sample feeder precisely fills each individual nanowell with the desired samples. The subsequent microscopy in real time records the reactions: as an overall result or even as a time-lapse view, including of cell-cell interactions. The processes in the nanowells are then available as valuable data material, thanks to intuitive software and AI-driven processing. Cells whose behavior corresponds to a desired or unexpected pattern are specifically removed using the cell extraction unit without destroying them.
The ARRALYZE CellShepherd revolutionizes the process of single cell analysis through a large number of parallel experiments: it saves expensive reagents and microtiter plates, minimizes manual processing time, prevents contamination, provides reliable data sets and can take interesting samples - completely new perspectives that arise from the combination of an innovative Laser processing with a lot of experience in building high-precision laboratory machines.
The reaction at the premiere of the ARRALYZE CellShepherd at SLAS2024 in Boston in February: “The interest was huge. We had many discussions at a high level. The combination of the individual steps required for cell analyzes in a compact, biosafe housing opens up a whole new perspective for biolaboratories,” says Britta Schulz, Managing Director DevelopmentQuipment , about the successful product launch.
