Generalized cell morphological parameters based on interferometric phase microscopy and their application to cell life cycle characterization.

We present analysis tools which are formulated using wide-field interferometric phase microscopy measurements, and show their ability to uniquely quantify the life cycle of live cancer cells. These parameters are based directly on the optical path delay profile of the sample and do not necessitate decoupling the refractive index and the thickness in the cell interferometric phase profile, and thus can be calculated using a single-frame acquisition. To demonstrate the use of these parameters, we have constructed a wide-field interferometric phase microscopy setup and closely traced the full lifecycle of HeLa cancer cells. These initial results show the potential of the parameters to distinguish between the different phases of the cell lifecycle, as well others biological phenomena.