| abstract |
The invention provides systems and methods for maintaining and allowing a cell from a mixed population of uncultivated cells to be maintained, proliferate and grow, comprising encapsulating in a microenvironment at least a single cell from the population; placing the encapsulated cell in a growth column; and incubating the encapsulated cell in the growth column under conditions allowing the encapsulated cell to survive and be maintained, thereby isolating and maintaining the cell. The invention also provides systems and methods for identifying a biomolecule of interest from a population of cells, comprising: encapsulating at least one cell from a population in a microenvironment; placing the microenvironment comprising at least one cell in a growth column; incubating the microenvironment in the growth column under conditions allowing the encapsulated cell to survive and be maintained, thereby isolating and maintaining the cell; isolating said cell comprising the and identifying a biomolecule interest from said encapsulated cell. |