Zelluläres screening auf der basis von sensorchips

celI-based assays provide valuable inloimation about (he action of drugs in the context of the ML'iialini network of cells. These assays offer high-iualit dala at the stage of drug discovery that preceeds animal tests. To date, existing instrumentation relies almost exclusively on optic readout, using intracellular fluorescent dyes. A new test system is presented which is based on microelectronic sensor chips and which pi ovules on-line (kinetic) monitoring of cellular reactions as reflected by parameters of cellular metabolic rates and morphologic changes. Cells are cultured directly on the surface of glass or silicon chips, and microphysiolgieal data are recorded for time periods of several hours to several days. The system is currently being evaluated using an apparatus accomodating six chips for parallel analysis. The extension to multiwellplate formats is in progress.