Single-Cell Stethoscopes for Functional Cardiac Cell Assessment and Sorting

 产品说明：诱导多能干细胞（iPSC）的出现为心肌细胞和神经元等原代细胞类型创造了前所未有的机会，这可能导致下一代药物，再生医学和癌症治疗。不幸的是，iPS转化和分化过程产生了细胞类型的异质混合物，需要细胞分选和纯化用于测试或治疗。对于这些电活性细胞，直接测试其电生理和功能是至关重要的 虽然细胞的行为是不稳定的，但目前的膜片钳测量是破坏性的，阻止了进一步的细胞使用，并且非接触方法没有足够的分辨率来区分不同的表型。因此，该领域仅限于非功能性分析技术，如形态学或细胞表面标记物作为代理。在这里，我们提出了一种新的非接触式电评估方法：“单细胞听诊器”，用于测量动作电位激发时细胞发出的声波。虽然很小，但这些压力波可以用超灵敏的水听器测量。在这个项目中，我们将直接将测量的声学信号与膜片钳电生理学相关联，并展示识别单个心肌细胞类型的能力。这些水听器将比心肌细胞相关频率范围（5-10 Hz）的任何现有水听器灵敏一个数量级，从而能够测量单个细胞。我们将进一步揭示电子动作电位和声信号之间的相关性，并使用这些来非破坏性地分类和iPSC衍生的心肌细胞。将对这些细胞群进行检测，并根据已知细胞类型进行基准测试，并定量评估该技术的准确性。这项完整的技术将极大地影响iPSC衍生细胞用于疾病建模、再生医学和药物发现的有效性和安全性。

 DESCRIPTION: The advent of induced pluripotent stems cells (iPSCs) has created unprecedented access to primary cell types such as cardiomyocytes and neurons, which may lead to the next-generation of drugs, regenerative medicine, and cancer treatments. Unfortunately, the iPS transformation and differentiation process produces a heterogeneous mixture of cell types, required cell sorting and purification for testing or therapy. For these electrically active cells it is critical to directly test their electrophysiological and functional behavior, yet current patch-clamping measurements are destructive, preventing further cell use, and non-contact methods do not have sufficient resolution to discriminate between different phenotypes. The field is thus limited to non-functional analysis techniques such as morphology or cell-surface markers as proxies. Here we propose a new method for non-contact electrical assessment: "Single Cell Stethoscopes" for measuring the acoustic waves given off by the cell when an action potential fires. While small, these pressure waves are measureable with ultra-sensitive hydrophones. Under this program, we will directly correlate the measured acoustic signals to patch clamp electrophysiology, and demonstrate the ability to identify individual cardiomyocyte cell types. These hydrophones will be an order of magnitude more sensitive than any existing at the relevant frequency ranges for cardiomyocytes (5-10 Hz), enabling measurements down to individual cells. We will further reveal the correlation between the electronic action potential and acoustic signals, and use these to non-destructively categorize and iPSC derived cardiomyocytes. These cell populations will be tested and benchmarked against known cell types, and the accuracy of the technique quantitatively assessed. This completed technology will dramatically impact the effectiveness and safety of iPSC-derived cells for disease modeling, regenerative medicine, and drug discovery.