Real time acoustic profiling of a live cancerous cell monolayer using QCM

Herein, and in contrast to the most common suspended cell formats, the real-time in situ sensing, and biochemical profiling, of live raw non-processed cell line monolayers (cell monolayer formats) has been demonstrated to be felicitous. This bio-recognition event used a well-defined chemical composition of a cyclic disulfide-based SAM functional layer for QCM electrode nanostructuration/functionalization. This cyclic disulfide-based functional layer also has been shown to provide a robust sensing platform, quite well adapted to the non-planar nature of tested cancer cell monolayers, in a buffered aqueous environment. Corresponding bio-recognition events, for real-time in situ sensing and profiling, of non-suspended cell monolayers, enabled a significant reduction of the signal processing time, while keeping the interacting cells in their native state. As a matter of consequence, this new QCM-relating development may be considered as a significant step milestone, en-route to multiplexed in/ex vivo real-time diagnostics of tissue pathologies.