Tracking cancer cell proliferation on a CMOS capacitance sensor chip

We report a novel technique for assessing cell proliferation that employs integrated capacitance sensors for monitoring the growth of anchorage-dependent living cells. The sensors measure substrate coupling capacitances of cells cultured on-chip in a standard in vitro environment. The biophysical phenomenon underlying the capacitive behavior of cells is the counterionic polarization around the insulating cell bodies when exposed to weak, low frequency electric fields. The sensors employ charge sharing for mapping sensed capacitance values in the fF range to output voltage signals. The sensor chip has been fabricated in a commercially available 0.5 μm, 2-poly 3-metal CMOS technology. We report experimental results demonstrating sensor response to the adhesion of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells followed by their proliferation on the chip surface. On-chip capacitance sensing offers a non-invasive, label-free, easy-to-use, miniaturized technique with real-time monitoring capability for tracking cell proliferation in vitro.