PARIS — A groundbreaking study published in Science Advances reveals that Sensome’s proprietary microsensing technology can successfully and non-invasively monitor cancer progression in real time, offering a powerful new tool for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The research, a multi-year collaboration between Sensome, École Polytechnique, and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), represents the first known application of electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to quantitatively track spatiotemporal cell dynamics without the need for labels or invasive imaging.
The study combines Sensome’s micro-electrode arrays with advanced signal processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze the electrical properties of surrounding tissues. These predictive algorithms outperform traditional EIS methods by enabling faster, more noise-resilient analysis and identifying complex patterns in biological data. The technology was shown to accurately detect changes in cell density, substrate coverage, cell size, and type in agreement with traditional microscopy results, using only impedance measurements.
“This study shows that the proprietary signal processing and machine learning algorithms involved in our technology can empower a method to successfully monitor cancer cell differentiation and evolution over time,” said Franz Bozsak, CEO and co-founder of Sensome. “This breakthrough is the first step in exploring the use of our tissue-sensing technology in monitoring cancer-related phenomena, such as tumor growth. It complements the work we are currently doing in lung cancer—where in situ cancer detection is crucial—which is one of several applications where we are applying our mastery of electrical impedance spectroscopy to novel uses in medicine. We are actively seeking industrial partners to realize innovative medical devices centered on our technology.”
Led by researchers at the Hydrodynamics Laboratory (LadHyX) at École Polytechnique and in collaboration with the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (C2N), the study focused on analyzing breast epithelial cells, both normal and cancerous. The system successfully tracked cancer cell growth, spatial heterogeneity, and the competition between normal and malignant cells over time, all without disrupting the cells’ natural behavior.
“This technology has the potential to obviate the need for microscopy imaging in cancer cell monitoring in various settings and significantly advance our understanding of cancer cell behavior and interactions,” said Abdul Barakat, CNRS Director of Research and Professor at École Polytechnique, and a co-author of the study. “Assessing how cells organize in space and time is essential to elucidating cancer progression. Live-cell fluorescence microscopy is the predominant method for tracking these dynamics today but is often limited by cytotoxicity induced by the fluorescent dyes, by cellular photo-damage during extended periods of microscopic imaging, and by restrictions in optical access in the case of opaque clinical samples. This methodology using Sensome’s technology demonstrates a non-invasive, label-free method enabling long-term monitoring of cancer-related cellular spatiotemporal dynamics with minimal disruption of natural cellular processes.”
The findings mark a major step toward integrating Sensome’s EIS technology into next-generation cancer monitoring tools, opening the door to safer, faster, and more scalable diagnostic systems.
