title: Nanoparticle vesicle encoding for imaging and tracking cell populations.
abstract: For phenotypic behavior to be understood in the context of cell lineage and local environment, properties of individual cells must be measured relative to population-wide traits. However, the inability to accurately identify, track and measure thousands of single cells via high-throughput microscopy has impeded dynamic studies of cell populations. We demonstrate unique labeling of cells, driven by the heterogeneous random uptake of fluorescent nanoparticles of different emission colors. By sequentially exposing a cell population to different particles, we generated a large number of unique digital codes, which corresponded to the cell-specific number of nanoparticle-loaded vesicles and were visible within a given fluorescence channel. When three colors are used, the assay can self-generate over 17,000 individual codes identifiable using a typical fluorescence microscope. The color-codes provided immediate visualization of cell identity and allowed us to track human cells with a success rate of 78% across image frames separated by 8 h.
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Nanohealth, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK. [2] Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rees
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanohealth, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wills
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanohealth, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: M Rowan
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanohealth, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tonkin
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanohealth, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Holton
authors.affiliation: Institute for Materials Research, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hondow
authors.affiliation: Institute for Materials Research, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Institute for Materials Research, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Rik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brydson
authors.affiliation: General Electric Healthcare, The Maynard Centre, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Val
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Millar
authors.affiliation: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Anne E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.affiliation: Centre for Nanohealth, School of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Huw D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Summers
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000379:methods*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D045663:Quantum Dots
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes