New concepts for chip-supported multi-well-plates: realization of a 24-well-plate with integrated impedance-sensors for functional cellular screening applications and automated microscope aided cell-based assays

Based on the experience with multiparametric bioelectronic sensor chips for the monitoring of living cells, we have combined the established multi-well-format with the advantages of microelectronic sensors. The result is a 24-well-plate where the bottom of the wells is replaced by glass-based chips with integrated IDES (interdigital electrode structure). By using IDES it is possible to detect adhesion and morphological changes of adherent growing cell cultures. Up to now these measurements were inaccessible in conjunction with multi-well-plates, especially in high throughput applications. If microscopic monitoring of the cell culture is required, the IDES can be fabricated using transparent conductor materials like ITO (indium tin oxide). Both the transparent material for the sensors and the sensor-carrier make the multi-well-plate also applicable for all kinds of fluorescence and luminescence biological tests. In addition to the impedance-sensors optical read-out sensor layers for pH and pO₂ can be integrated. For this reason there are many possible fields of application in biological and biomedical areas such as drug screening, chemosensitive testing and environmental toxicology as well as in biosensing for biological and chemical warfare. Especially the possibility of using this multi-well-plate together with automated imaging-systems has the great advantage of combining optical and sensory monitoring accessible to high-throughput-applications.