Study of 3D cell morphology and effect on light scattering distribution

We have acquired and reconstructed the 3D structures of B16F10 mouse melanoma cells to study morphology changes in response to gene variations. The 3D structure can be imported into a parallel FDTD code to model light scattering distribution and determine morphological parameters such as volumes of cytoplasm, nucleus and mitochondria. We found that the measured parameters agree with the light scatter data obtained with a flow cytometer, showing significant differences between the genetically modified and the unmodified melanoma cells.