Patent ID: 7655421

Claim:
A method for detecting in an aqueous sample a plurality of cell populations each expressing at least one distinct cell surface marker and for assessing the functional status of said cell populations, said method comprising the steps of: i. providing a sensor surface having optical properties that change in response to binding of material to the surface or to molecular adlayers on the surface; ii. creating one or more cell capture regions on said sensor surface by immobilizing cell capture ligands specific to said cell surface markers in a predetermined spatial pattern; iii. creating one or more cell product capture regions on said sensor surface by immobilizing cell product capture ligands, each said cell product capture ligand being specific to a secreted or released product from said cell populations, said one or more cell product capture regions arranged in predetermined spatial patterns proximal to or overlapping one or more of said cell capture regions; iv. contacting said sensor surface with the aqueous sample containing living cells, cells expressing a cell surface marker specific to said cell capture ligands being captured at said cell capture regions, captured cells forming a pattern corresponding to the predetermined spatial pattern of said one or more cell capture regions; v. detecting changes in said optical properties at each of said cell capture regions, the magnitude of the detected change at each cell capture region being a function of the number of cells captured at said each cell capture region; vi. replacing the aqueous sample with a biological buffer comprising a culture medium and incubating the captured cells on said sensor surface, cell products secreted or released from said captured cells being captured at cell product capture regions having a cell product capture ligand specific to said cell products, captured cell products forming a pattern corresponding to the predetermined spatial patterns of said one or more cell product capture regions; vii. monitoring changes in said optical properties at each of said cell product capture regions over time, the magnitude of the change in optical properties at each said cell product capture region being a function of the quantity of the secreted or released product from said captured cells captured at each of said cell product capture regions; and viii. using the detected changes of the optical properties of the sensor surface at said cell capture regions and said cell product capture regions to provide information on cell functions of said captured cells over time.