Olympus, a leading manufacturer of optical and digital precision technology, has announced a partnership with evorion biotechnologies, a pioneer in advanced single-cell analysis using unique microfluidic systems. By merging evorion’s 3D hydrogel bead technology and Olympus’ microscope systems, the collaboration introduces a seamless and largely automated workflow solution to capture functional phenotypes of individual cells´ behaviour over time. This workflow enables researchers to reveal novel insights into thousands of cell-cell interactions in a 3D microenvironment, facilitating advanced single-cell research across applications such as adoptive cell therapy, cancer research and immunology.
The combination of Olympus’ IXplore microscope systems and cellSens software with evorion’s innovative CellCity system and CellCity Scout-AI software makes high-resolution live-cell analysis applications both easy and accessible. By encapsulating thousands of single cells or cell pairs into hydrogel beads and immobilising them on evorion’s CellCity Array Chip, researchers can monitor and image the functional phenotypes of cells in a physiologically relevant 3D microenvironment. High-resolution images of thousands of individual live cells are made possible by Olympus’ IXplore microscope systems, and the workflow can accommodate the IXplore Live, IXplore Spin or IXplore SpinSR system for exceptional 3D super-resolution imaging. Fast data analysis is facilitated by the CellCity Scout-AI software, which uses AI algorithms to automatically select positions of interest on the CellCity Array Chip and send the trackable coordinates to the IXplore system for further in-depth imaging.
A powerful aspect of the workflow is the ability to perform multi-modal analyses at single-cell resolution, enabling researchers—for the first time—to correlate time-resolved functional phenotypes with immunostaining, single-molecule RNA FISH analysis in a highly parallelised manner. Biomedical researchers can now obtain a more holistic understanding of dynamic cell behavior to drive advances in therapeutics.
Dr. Sebastian Bühren, CEO of evorion biotechnologies, commented, “Early on we recognised the impact that the CellCity platform could have on research fields like adoptive cell therapy, cancer immunotherapy and solid tumor treatment. We are excited to partner with Olympus, a renowned company with a global reach. Our partnership will allow us to bring our innovative platform to a wider audience and work together in advancing single-cell research by integrating the leading imaging systems of Olympus into our innovative CellCity workflow.”
