Abstract 1393: A Novel platform providing automated, consistent and gentle cell isolation from tissues for downstream applications

Abstract

Abstract Tumor biologists have long studied tumor tissue to understand cancer progression and to ultimately treat the disease. The gold standard would be to analyze tumor and immune cells from the same sample, providing purified cells that are interacting within the tumor. Many tissue homogenization techniques have been developed to release cells for downstream analysis, however, an automated and gentle process of purifying multiple cell types from the same processed tissue has remained elusive. The industry-standard workflows, such as centrifugation, have presented long-standing performance issues in terms of low cell recovery and inefficient removal of molecular debris, which often leads to sequencing results that are difficult to interpret. To ensure the quality of sequencing data from tissues, upstream processes need to improve to get the most from the precious patient tissue. Applied Cells has developed an integrated system based on multiple physics principles to achieve cell wash, concentration, and target cell isolation, with high recovery at an unprecedented flow rate. This platform combines tunable, acoustic cell purification and in-flow, column-free immuno-magnetic separation technologies, enabling automation of the entire cell sample preparation workflow for genomics and transcriptomics analysis. By harnessing the power and precision of acoustic cell manipulation, the MARS System can process a variety of samples including dissociated solid tissue in enzymatic buffer with high cell recovery and superior molecular debris removal compared to standard methods. For instance, when purifying leukocytes from a lung cancer biopsy tissue samples, MARS can remove 99.50% debris and 91% of dead cells in one single step, which is supreme than the conventional centrifuge cell wash while having >90% leukocyte recovery at 1mL/min flow rate. The in-flow microfluidics design drastically reduces residual DNA and RNA fragments that are difficult to remove using centrifuge wash methods. Furthermore, the system enables parallel cell purification and concentration for high throughput sample processing. Tumor or TIL cells can be further enriched by means of positive magnetic selection for genomic or cell biology applications. This novel platform allows improved tumor and TIL recovery in a gentle, consistent manner while having minimal interference with downstream applications, all from a single source starting material. Citation Format: Liping Yu. A Novel platform providing automated, consistent and gentle cell isolation from tissues for downstream applications [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 1393.