Microfluidic pairwise interaction analysis of glioma cancer cells and modeling

We investigate how cellular interactions influence cellular architectures by assaying for functional proteins associated with EGFR signaling in pairs of U87EGFRvIII cancer cells, at varying cell separations. Using a thermodynamics-derived approach, we identified that the stable steady state of EGFR signaling exists when two U87EGFRvIII cells are separated by 80-100 μm. The signaling coordination of the EGFR pathway was measured by assessing protein-protein correlations, as a function of cellular separation. This intimate relationship between functional protein levels and cellular architectures provides a clue towards understanding the scattered nature of U87EGFRvIII cells relative to U87PTEN cells in certain tumors.