Skip to content
services-banner

IN VITRO, CELL-BASED
ASSAY SERVICES

Get actionable insights into your therapeutic candidate before it reaches the clinic.

IN VITRO ASSAYS PLAY A KEY ROLE IN DRUG DISCOVERY

In vitro assays offer a cost-effective, efficient, and highly reliable way to screen candidate compounds in the early stages of drug development. Whether identifying promising, novel agents or aiming to enhance existing treatments, in vitro assays can be applied to a wide range of systems, from simple mono-cultures of immortalized cell lines to complex cultures of patient-derived tissue samples or iPSC-derived cells.

Benefits include:

  • Scalable to high-throughput formats
  • Ability to isolate, control, and study specific pathways or systems of interest
  • Fast turnaround time compared to in vivo assays

OUR IN VITRO ASSAY SERVICE OFFERINGS

imaging-analysis-icon

IMAGING & ANALYSIS

You send us plates with cells that have been fixed & stained, and we'll send you data.
Learn more

r2g-icon

READY-2-GO

Defined assay offerings across a range of disease and therapeutic areas.
Learn more

cell-painting-icon

CELL PAINTING

Compare your compounds' effects against those of known drugs.
Learn more

bespoke-icon

BESPOKE ASSAYS

Custom assays to answer your specific, complex biological questions.
Learn more


Imaging & Analysis Ready-2-Go

Cell Painting Base Offering

Bespoke Assays
Cell Model
Client provided Select from available options A549 cells Your choice
Fluorescent Dyes & Stains
Client provided Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice
Timepoint(s)
Client provided Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice
Compounds
Client provided Your choice Your choice Your choice
Workflow Stages Included
Consultation & scope, Image, Analyze, and Report All All All

 

FEATURE COMPARISON

Imaging & Analysis

Learn more

Ready-2-Go

Learn more

Cell Painting Base Offering

Learn more

Bespoke Assays

Learn more

Cell Model
Client- provided Select from available options A549 cells Your choice
Fluorescent Dyes & Stains
Client- provided Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice
Timepoint(s)
Client- provided Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice
Compounds
Client- provided Your choice Your choice Your choice
Workflow Stages Included
Consultation & scope, image, analyze, and report All All All

 

FEATURE COMPARISON

Imaging & Analysis

Learn more

Ready-2-Go

Learn more

Cell Painting Base Offering

Learn more

Bespoke Assays

Learn more

Cell Model
Client provided Select from available options A549 cells Your choice
Fluorescent Dyes & Stains
Client provided Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice
Timepoint(s)
Client provided Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice
Compounds
Client provided Your choice Your choice Your choice
Workflow Stages Included
Consultation & scope, Image, Analyze, and Report All All All

 

cp-lines-section-break

OUR SERVICE OFFERINGS

  READY-2-GO

CELL PAINTING
BASE OFFERING

BESPOKE IMAGING & ANALYSIS
Cell Model Select from available options A549 cells Your choice Client provided
Fluorescent Dyes & Stains Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice Client provided
Timepoint(s) Pre-determined Pre-determined Your choice Client provided
Compounds Your choice Your choice Your choice Client provided
Workflow Stages Included All All All Consultation & scope, Image, Analyze, and Report

READY-2-GO

Cell Model: Select from available options

Fluroescent Dyes & Stains: Pre-determined

Timepoint(s): Pre-determined

Compounds: Your choice

Workflow Stages Included: All

Learn more


CELL PAINTING BASE OFFERING

Cell Model: A549 cells

Fluroescent Dyes & Stains: Pre-determined

Timepoint(s): Pre-determined

Compounds: Your choice

Workflow Stages Included: All

Learn more


BESPOKE

Cell Model: Your choice

Fluroescent Dyes & Stains: Your choice

Timepoint(s): Your choice

Compounds: Your choice

Workflow Stages Included: All

Learn more


IMAGING & ANALYSIS

Cell Model: Client provided

Fluroescent Dyes & Stains: Client provided

Timepoint(s): Client provided

Compounds: Client provided

Workflow Stages Included: Consultation & scope, Image, Analyze, and Report

Learn more

DISCOVER MORE WITH A PARTNER YOU CAN TRUST

"We worked with PhenoVista over a period of almost two years on an exploratory project that came with multiple layers of complexity. We were impressed by the scientific rigor and ingenuity that is part of the culture at PhenoVista. James and team are true collaborators, and they proactively shared ideas to help us achieve our goal. Paired with excellent communication and flexibility to accommodate the scientific-discovery path, we can honestly say that it was a joy to work with PhenoVista."

Dr. Steve Rodems, VP Research and Non-clinical Development | Travere Therapeutics

OUR EXPERTISE

Our goal is to provide you with better data faster, so that you can identify potential, adverse outcomes of your therapeutic candidate early in drug development. By utilizing clinically relevant cell models and cutting-edge, high-content imaging techniques, we provide invaluable insights and support towards your research.

expertise-lab-v2

OUR PEOPLE SET US APART

We are a team of scientists, engineers, data scientists, and support staff, who are incredibly passionate about biology and how it propels our world forward. With diverse backgrounds ranging from plant biology to neuroscience, we're able to deliver breakthrough solutions for your most challenging biological questions. We are proud to say that we love what we do and that we get to do it together. 

team-photo-v2
PhenoVista_6420_v1-1024x683

OUR EXPERTISE

We combine the best automated confocal imaging with scalable liquid handling and insightful informatics to create and implement custom, high content imaging-based phenotypic assays.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Assay Design & Development

PhenoVista’s core capabilities focus on the development, execution, and analysis of cell-based assays through high-content imaging across numerous areas of biology/disease. We routinely design, develop, and run assays that generate diverse readouts at the cellular and subcellular levels, including, but not limited to, cytotoxicity, target identification, target validation, therapeutic efficacy, mode-of-action determination, and therapeutic delivery.


We support a broad range of projects, from our off-the-shelf, Ready-2-Go assays to completely customized development projects. We also offer Imaging & Analysis services, in which you ship to us your fixed cells for high-content imaging and we send you your quantitative-analysis results.


Protocol transfer is not required. Our bespoke assay services offer tailorable, comprehensive solutions that span initial assay development and setup, staining and imaging, and data analysis and mining. Clients can choose to collaborate with us at any point in this process. However, we also can certainly onboard customer protocols, fixed-cell plates, stained-cell plates, or previously captured images for downstream processing and analysis. We can also incorporate outbound technology transfer into project plans, should clients prefer to transition any developed assay protocol back to their organization for subsequent in-house use.


We can utilize a wide array of cell types in our assay services, including immortalized, primary, iPSCs, and patient-derived cells.


While we do not offer tissue analysis, we have established expansive 3D, high-content imaging assays to characterize more complex, physiologically relevant cellular models, such as spheroids, organoids, and 3D bioprinted co-cultures that incorporate diverse cell types.


We have extensive expertise in developing and working with 3D, in vitro cell models including spheroids, organoids, and 3D, bioprinted co-cultures.


We can incorporate a wide array of cell types into the 3D models we offer. These include, but are not limited to, immortalized cells, primary cells (including immune cells), iPSCs, and/or patient-derived cells. We have used these models in diverse assays, such as CAR-T cell-mediated cancer organoid cytotoxicity, synovial-joint modeling, and gut neurosphere differentiation.


Yes - we can design time-resolved studies based on two different approaches. For studies that require fully kinetic readouts, we can utilize live cells that either express fluorescently tagged marker(s) and/or are compatible with fluorescent indicator dyes that do not impact cell viability and image over time in our live cell-enabled imaging instruments. This approach is best suited to small-scale projects that do not require high-throughput data generation. If the study design incorporates analysis of markers that require fixation and/or high-throughput assessment, we can set up a multi-timepoint workflow.


Assay Readouts

Depending on the assay design, we have the flexibility to evaluate a broad spectrum of therapeutic agents, including, but not limited to, small molecules, targeted therapeutic antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, biologics (such as natural products and peptides), and therapeutic siRNAs.


The types of markers and readouts we can accommodate are dependent on the robust detection reagents available that address the relevant biology and are compatible with our in-house, high-content imaging platforms.


Theoretically we can accommodate assessment of any number of markers, provided that robust detection reagents are available that address the relevant biology and are compatible with our in-house, high-content imaging platforms. We define “palettes” of up to four compatible markers per grouping, tailored to ensure cross-compatibility in the staining workflow and to minimize potential spectral crosstalk between fluorophores. Each project may incorporate use of one or more palettes to capture all desired measurements.


Our core expertise is based in assay development and high-content imaging and analysis. If your project requires generation of complementary data sets to achieve your goal(s), we can offer parallel generation of cellular samples for external analysis as a deliverable. Where appropriate, we may suggest partnering with one of our collaborators to analyze these samples, and we can incorporate contracting these additional services into your project plan.


CONTACT US

Let's discuss how we can help with your research.