Researchers can keep a close eye on individual cells for several days thanks to a honeycomb cell container.

Scientists in Israel and the US have built an array of hexagonal bowls, each the correct size to hold a single cell. The bowls have half-moon walls which hold the cells in place but allow chemicals to flow over them. Single cells can be studied separately, said head of the team Mordechai Deutsch at Bar Ilan University. 'Each cell actually acts as a laboratory.' 

The team's aim was to examine individual cells without the background signal from other cells in the sample. Because different cells can react to a change at different speeds and times, being able to study a single cell should make biological processes easier to follow and understand, said Deutsch. 

The container can be used to follow the growth and health of cells and to observe their long-term responses to drugs. Current methods for long term study of individual cells involve tethering them in place, which can change the way they behave, or watching them constantly to keep track of which cell is which. Deutsch foresees applications of the honeycomb container in drug discovery and cell therapy. 

Mike Shuler, a bioengineer at Cornell University, US, welcomes the team's method. 'Most other techniques are cumbersome and often have the potential to alter the cell's physiological response to controlled perturbations. Such a device should prove very useful for understanding the intrinsic variation in responses among members of a population of cells and the fundamental basis for such response,' said Shuler. 

Clare Boothby