Use of Solentim verified in-situ plate seeding (VIPS™) enhances single-cell cloning efficiency

The primary goal in cell line development is to establish high-producer recombinant cell line(s) of single-cell origin. Traditionally, these cell lines are developed using limiting dilution cloning (LDC) method of single cell isolation, a rate-limiting, lengthy and labor-intensive process. The Verified-In-Situ-Plate-Seeding (VIPS™) is an automated single-cell seeding and imaging equipment designed to accelerate cell line development workflow. In this study, VIPS™ was tested for efficiency and accuracy of single cell seeding in parallel with limiting dilution cloning (LDC). Three Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) derived cell lines with known clonal properties were tested under six different growth conditions (three growth media and two different kinds of microplates). Data showed VIPS™ and limiting dilution (LDC) have comparable cloning efficiency when CHO-M cells were tested. By contrast, the Verified In-Situ Plate Seeding (VIPS™) produced 6-8-fold more clones of single-cell origin than LDC when CHO-K1 or CHO-S cells were tested. Moreover, the verified In-Situ Plate Seeding (VIPS™) correctly identified single-cell and multiple-cells seeded wells with 65-72% and 52-81% accuracy, respectively. Taken together, the high throughput imaging and single-cell seeding capabilities of VIPS™ outperformed the rate-limiting LDC method and, therefore, has the potential to accelerate cell line development workflow.