Figure 1

Schematic overview of the pipeline. A) Succinct overview of the pipeline, sectioned into three main processes: preparation, microscopy, and gene expression. Approximate time per plate for each step in the procedure is shown. B) Diagram of the cell isolation process. Diluted solutions of cells are dispensed into fluidically isolated wells of a Terasaki plate. Inset illustrates the spreading morphology of a single adherent cell on the plate. C) Concentration curve experiments with MDA-MB-231 cells demonstrating the ability to tune the well occupancy by altering initial seeding concentration according to Poisson statistics. Approximately 200–300 cells/mL was identified as the optimal concentration for obtaining single cells. Error bars represent standard deviation and curves represent Poisson fit. D) Demonstration of three-color fluorescence on the Terasaki plates. An isolated THP-1 cell is stained with Hoechst 33342 (DNA; blue), Calcein AM (cell membrane integrity; green) and MitoTracker CMXRos (mitochondria; red). Main scale bar represents 100 μm and inset scale bar represents 5 μm.