Shadow image based high-throughput continuous cell monitoring for point-of-care and telemedicine applications

Shadow image based high-throughput continuous cell monitoring technique is proposed. Shadow image variations of human alveolar epithelial cells (A549) cultured in a custom built incubator are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Two measures which correspond to the morphology change of the cells are suggested and defined. Within this platform, it is demonstrated that a single image of a 5M pixel CMOS image sensor can monitor thousands of biological cells simultaneously and continuously. This compact, low-cost, and high-throughput cell monitoring technique holds great promise in the fields of point-of-care testing and telemedicine especially for the resource limited settings.