Novel Technology Tracks Hidden Cancer Cells Faster

Now, a new technology designed to track these cells with single-cell precision could lead to more effective therapies.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH, USA) are advancing their technology that enhances the ability to locate therapeutic cells or diseased cells like cancer. Their platform, based on the CryoViz cryo-imaging system, generates high-resolution 3D images using robotics, microscopy, and advanced software. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning tools, the CryoViz cryo-imaging device can automatically identify healthy and diseased tissues, detect fluorescently labeled cells, and enable “virtual staining” to examine samples at a single-cell level.

By drastically reducing the time and complexity of whole-body imaging—mapping an entire mouse in hours instead of using millions of tissue sections—the approach aims to transform how researchers track metastatic cancer cells, evaluate T-cell behavior during immunotherapy, and assess drug delivery or imaging agents. The team will also use an AI-based “virtual staining” approach to evaluate the body’s tissue at a single-cell level, allowing them to track individual cells such as migrating or metastatic cancer cells and T-cells. This capability will help assess cell-based treatments treatments like immunotherapy.

“The computer can decide when it has detected some “glowing” fluorescent cells, like metastatic tumor cells in the lung,” said CWRU researcher Susann Brady-Kalnay. “It will automatically save tissue sections in that region so I can go back and study the tissue in detail at the cellular and molecular level.”

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