A multiplexed biomimetic imaging platform for assessing single cell plasticity (Plastomics) and scoring of tumour malignancy

Metastasis is the major cause of death in cancer patients due to cancer cell dissemination to distant organs.

Cell plasticity is a core characteristic of metastatic cells and confers cellular adaptation capabilities to variable mechano-chemical tissue microenvironments.

However, to date, specific quantitative measures of cancer cell plasticity associated with tumour aggressiveness and therapy resistance have remained difficult to establish.

A major limitation is the availability of highthroughput multiplexed assays that can capture phenotypic heterogeneity and morphodynamic plasticity at the single cell level in standardized 3D culture conditions reflecting in vivo tissue microenvironments.

The PLAST_CELL interdisciplinary consortium will pioneer the development of a microfluidics-based imaging platform to categorize and score cancer cell plasticity within diverse physiologically relevant 3D biomimetic culture conditions.

The platform will enable to perform single cell multi-scale morphometric and molecular live cell data collection (PLAST_DATA) with minimal sample size (