Researchers announced on June 18 the development of CellTrap, a new technology that allows scientists to observe how individual immune cells interact with and attack cancer cells, including those from brain tumors. Traditional laboratory tests often provide only average results across many cells, making it difficult to see the specific details of cell-to-cell interactions. CellTrap aims to address this limitation by capturing and monitoring these events at the single-cell level.
The CellTrap device uses a microfluidic chip featuring a large main channel that branches into 1,024 small trapping chambers. In these chambers, researchers can selectively pair individual immune and cancer cells or vary their ratios. The system spatially fixes the cells so their interactions can be observed for up to 14 hours using time-lapse microscopy. This setup enables scientists to witness a variety of scenarios, such as isolated cancer or immune cells as well as different combinations of both.
Initial experiments focused on glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain tumor. Results showed that when multiple immune cells encountered a single cancer cell, attacks were more frequent and intense. Early activation signals in immune cells also appeared to predict later damaging effects on cancer cells within the same interaction.
Beyond glioblastoma, researchers tested CellTrap with two additional types of cancer: chronic myeloid leukemia and adenocarcinoma cell lines. According to Destgeer, "The more we learn about what actually happens between individual cells, the better we can compare treatment strategies and develop new ones." Destgeer added that while their research centered on immune and cancer cell interactions, "the platform isn't limited to them—almost any combination of cells can be loaded and observed in the chip."
