Single‐Cell Mobility Analysis of Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells

Efforts have been taken to enhance the study of single‐cells, however, the task remains challenging because most previous investigations cannot exclude the interactions between single cells or separately retrieved cells with specificity for further analyses. Here, a single‐cell mobility analysis platform (SCM‐Chip) is developed that can not only real‐time monitor single‐cell migration in independent niches but can also selectively recover target cells one by one. The design of each channel with a single‐cell capture unit and an outlet enables the system to place single cells in different isolated niches with fluidic capture and to respectively collect target cells based on mobilities. SCM‐Chip characterization of breast cancer cells reveals the presence of high‐ and low‐migratory populations. Whole‐cell transcriptome analysis establishes that monocyte chemotactic protein induced protein 1 (MCPIP1) is related with cell mobility; cells with a high expression of MCPIP1 exhibit low mobility in vitro and metastasis in vivo. The SCM platform provides a generic tool for accurate single‐cell isolation and differentiation that can be readily adapted for the study of cancer and drug development.