Lab-on-a-chip for testing tumour susceptibility to chemotherapy

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Scientists at the Lab-on-a-Chip group of the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, the Netherlands, have developed an “apoptosis chip” that can test the effects of different chemotherapies on samples of tumour cells.

According to scientist Floor Wolbers, who developed the system, this will enable doctors to choose target the type and dose of medication at a specific type of cancer cell.

The apoptosis chip also opens up new possibilities in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Only a few cells are required for the analysis, avoiding the need for an invasive biopsy. As an individual cell can be monitored when medication is added, it is not necessary to culture millions of cells, and so the risk of tumour cells being modified is removed. The scientists say the chip itself can be made of a relatively cheap and disposable material.

The new technique can already be applied in a clinical setting. At present, the process is monitored using an optical microscope. The chip is also expected to be useful in high throughput screening in drug discovery.