Wlodkowic Donald, Darzynkiewicz Zbigniew
Donald Wlodkowic, Auckland Microfabrication Facility, Department of Chemistry, University of Auckland, 1142 Auckland, New Zealand.
World J Clin Oncol. 2010 Nov 10;1(1):18-23. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v1.i1.18.
Cancer constitutes a heterogenic cellular system with a high level of spatio-temporal complexity. Recent discoveries by systems biologists have provided emerging evidence that cellular responses to anti-cancer modalities are stochastic in nature. To uncover the intricacies of cell-to-cell variability and its relevance to cancer therapy, new analytical screening technologies are needed. The last decade has brought forth spectacular innovations in the field of cytometry and single cell cytomics, opening new avenues for systems oncology and high-throughput real-time drug screening routines. The up-and-coming microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) technology and micro-total analysis systems (μTAS) are arguably the most promising platforms to address the inherent complexity of cellular systems with massive experimental parallelization and 4D analysis on a single cell level. The vast miniaturization of LOC systems and multiplexing enables innovative strategies to reduce drug screening expenditures while increasing throughput and content of information from a given sample. Small cell numbers and operational reagent volumes are sufficient for microfluidic analyzers and, as such, they enable next generation high-throughput and high-content screening of anti-cancer drugs on patient-derived specimens. Herein we highlight the selected advancements in this emerging field of bioengineering, and provide a snapshot of developments with relevance to anti-cancer drug screening routines.
癌症是一个具有高度时空复杂性的异质性细胞系统。系统生物学家最近的发现提供了新的证据，表明细胞对抗癌方式的反应本质上是随机的。为了揭示细胞间变异性的复杂性及其与癌症治疗的相关性，需要新的分析筛选技术。过去十年在细胞计数和单细胞细胞组学领域带来了惊人的创新，为系统肿瘤学和高通量实时药物筛选程序开辟了新途径。新兴的微流控芯片实验室（LOC）技术和微全分析系统（μTAS）可以说是最有前途的平台，能够通过大规模实验并行化和单细胞水平的4D分析来解决细胞系统固有的复杂性。LOC系统的极大小型化和多路复用功能能够实现创新策略，在提高给定样本的通量和信息含量的同时降低药物筛选成本。微流控分析仪只需少量细胞和少量操作试剂，因此能够对患者来源的标本进行下一代高通量和高内涵抗癌药物筛选。在此，我们重点介绍这一新兴生物工程领域的选定进展，并简要介绍与抗癌药物筛选程序相关的发展情况。
