Resonant Waveguide Grating Imager for Single Cell Monitoring of the Invasion of 3D Speheroid Cancer Cells Through Matrigel.

The invasion of cancer cells through their surrounding extracellular matrices is the first critical step to metastasis, a devastating event to cancer patients. However, in vitro cancer cell invasion is mostly studied using two-dimensional (2D) models. Three-dimensional (3D) multicellular spheroids may offer an advantageous cell model for cancer research and oncology drug discovery. This chapter describes a label-free, real-time, and single-cell approach to quantify the invasion of 3D spheroid colon cancer cells through Matrigel using a spatially resolved resonant waveguide grating imager.