Monitor spheroid growth, compaction, adhesion and outgrowth continuously — without removing 3D cultures from their environment. Automated quantification of area, diameter and roundness over time.
Spheroids and organoids offer a significantly better approximation of in vivo tissue environments compared to 2D cultures — but they require careful, continuous observation to capture growth dynamics, compaction and outgrowth events.
zenCELL owl images spheroids directly inside the incubator — no removal, no disruption of 3D structure, no temperature shock. Physiological conditions maintained throughout the entire experiment.
Area, width, height, diameter and roundness quantified automatically using zenCELL owl and ImageJ at every imaging interval. Track structural changes over time without manual measurement.
Monitor up to 24 wells in parallel — different cell lines, drug treatments, or growth conditions. Compare proliferation rates and outgrowth dynamics under identical environmental conditions.
Continuous monitoring over 48–96 hours captures the complete growth profile — from initial aggregation through to full spheroid formation. Every 10 minutes, automatically.
Capture the moment spheroids adhere to treated surfaces and begin outgrowth migration. A semi-spherical 3D core with surrounding monolayer formation — documented automatically.
Apply drug treatments to spheroids and monitor effects continuously. More physiologically relevant than 2D cytotoxicity assays for predicting in vivo drug responses.
Two parallel experiments with MCF-7 breast cancer cells demonstrate zenCELL owl's capability for both non-adhesive spheroid growth and adhesion/outgrowth monitoring.
MCF-7 spheroid diameter growth over 96h on agarose-coated plates. Area, width, height and roundness quantified automatically.
MCF-7 cells (6,000 cells/well) were seeded on agarose-coated 24-well plates and monitored for 96 hours at 10-minute intervals.
Result: Spheroids formed smooth, round shapes due to the non-adhesive environment. Proliferation occurred in the outer layers, increasing diameter over time. Key parameters including area, width, height and roundness were quantified automatically.
7-day-old MCF-7 spheroids (6,000 cells/well) were transferred to tissue-culture treated 24-well plates and monitored for 48 hours.
Result: Cells adhered to the surface and began migrating outward. A semi-spherical 3D core with a surrounding monolayer formed within 48 hours — adhesion and outgrowth dynamics captured completely.
MCF-7 spheroid adhesion and outgrowth on TC-treated surface over 48h. 3D core with surrounding monolayer.
Using zenCELL owl software and ImageJ, all key morphological parameters are monitored continuously — with no manual intervention and no environmental disruption.
Results overview — spheroid expansion, adhesion dynamics and morphological parameters quantified automatically.
Every 10 minutes, zenCELL owl software and ImageJ extract the following parameters from each well — no manual measurement, no environmental disruption, no bias.
All data exportable as CSV for statistical analysis. Timelapse videos generated automatically for each well.
Developed in collaboration with:
University of Regensburg & Fraunhofer EMFT, Munich — with support from distribution partner Omni Life Science (ols-bio.com)
Watch zenCELL owl monitor 3D spheroid growth inside a real incubator. On request via MS Teams.
University of Regensburg & Fraunhofer EMFT, Munich
With support from our distribution partner Omni Life Science (www.ols-bio.com)
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