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CELL PAINTING
ASSAY SERVICES

An untargeted, unbiased, whole-cell assessment of compounds' effects on cellular phenotypes.

WHAT IS CELL PAINTING?

Cell Painting is an unbiased, image-based, phenotypic profiling method that is revolutionizing the drug-discovery process in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Cells treated with a compound of interest are stained with a palette of fluorescent dyes to identify and measure phenotypic differences. These distinctions are used to deduce information about compounds, such as mechanisms of action and early toxicology, by comparing the cells' phenotypic profiles with those obtained by treatments with reference compounds and/or libraries.

Features of Cell Painting:

  • Generation of unbiased information
  • Phenotypic fingerprinting
  • Applicable to diverse cell models
  • Creation of rich datasets
ORGANELLE OR STRUCTURE CELL PAINTING DYES
Nucleus Hoechst
Endoplasmic Reticulum Concanavalin A (Alexa Fluor 488)
Nucleoli & Cytoplasmic RNA SYTO 14
Golgi & Plasma Membrane Wheat germ agglutinin (Alexa Fluor 555)
F-actin Phalloidin (Alexa Fluor 568)
Mitochondria MitoTracker Deep Red FM

APPLICATIONS OF CELL PAINTING
IN DRUG DISCOVERY

Cell Painting is a high-content screening (HCS) technique that generates detailed images of cells, allowing for the extraction of quantitative data of various cellular parameters. In the context of drug discovery, Cell Painting can play a crucial role in several aspects, including:

  • Mechanism of Action
  • Safety & Toxicity
  • Target Identification

MOA - Understanding Drug Effects

Image profiles generated by Cell Painting are clustered by similarities in phenotypic readouts. The close clustering of a novel compound with unknown MOA to that with compounds with a known MOA suggest that they share a common or similar MOA.

Early Detection of Toxicity

Beyond looking at general cell health, including viability, cytoskeletal changes, and changes in mitochondrial structure, we can compare phenotypic profiles of cells treated with novel or poorly understood compounds with those of compounds with known safety concerns and/or off-target effects.

Target Identification

Unlike target-based screening, which focuses on specific molecular targets, Cell Painting is an unbiased, phenotypic, screening method. If a target of a drug is unknown, the phenotypic profiles induced by compounds with known targets can be compared with the profiles induced by a compound with an unknown target. Highly similar phenotypic profiles suggest that the compounds act on similar targets or pathways. 

Practical Considerations for Designing and Executing High-content Screens webinar sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

WEBINAR

Practical Considerations for Designing & Executing High-content Screens

Learn about the basic principles of HCS and review examples of specific applications, including Cell Painting.

WHAT IS CELL PAINTING?

Cell Painting is an unbiased, image-based, phenotypic profiling method that is revolutionizing the drug-discovery process in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Cells are stained with a palette of fluorescent dyes to identify and measure phenotypic differences, mechanisms of action, and early toxicology by comparing their phenotypic profiles with reference compounds and/or libraries.

Cell Painting requires a significant financial investment in order to support the needed equipment and personnel with the expertise to execute these assays. Our Cell Painting Assay Service provides customers who are interested in exploring this game-changing methodology, but who may not be ready to fully invest, a more gradual approach to evaluating the technology.

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CELL PAINTING WORKFLOW

grow-cells

STEP 1

Culture cells and treat with compound of interest.

pipette-v2

STEP 2

Stain cells with a palette of fluorescent dyes that target different cellular structures.

microscope

STEP 3

Capture high-resolution images of stained cells using fluorescence microscopy.

cell-painting-analysis

STEP 4

Analyze data to identify phenotypic changes and compare against a reference library.

grow-cells

STEP 1

Culture cells and treat with compound of interest.

pipette-v2

STEP 2

Stain cells with a palette of fluorescent dyes that target different cellular structures.

microscope

STEP 3

Capture high-resolution images of stained cells using fluorescence microscopy.

cell-painting-analysis

STEP 4

Analyze data to identify phenotypic changes and compare against a reference library.

OUR CAPABILITIES

  • Dyes
  • Cell Types
  • Data Analysis
  • Libraries/References

Cell Painting Dyes

  • The typical cell-painting palette of 6 "paints": Hoechst, SYTO14, Concanavalin A, Phalloidin, WGA, and MitoTracker FM
  • Customized palettes (i.e. substituting markers specific to a particular target, phenotypic readout, or cell type for one or more of the typical readouts)

Cell Types

  • U-2 OS or A549 lung carcinoma cells commonly used in the typical cell painting methodology
  • Through our custom services, we have a range of primary or iPSC-derived cells we can work with, including but not limited to:
    • Hepatocytes
    • Cardiomyocytes
    • CNS-associated cells

Data Analysis

We provide representative images for all key test conditions and readouts. Data analysis and presentation depends on the scope of the project and the questions being asked.

Examples:

  • For a small set of test articles where MOA is the key question, the most useful output may be a rank ordering of "nearest neighbors" comparisons based on the Euclidean distance
  • For large datasets, principal component analysis (PCA) can reduce a large set of input features to a smaller one, effectively providing an overview of the results
  • For select features of interest, looking at dose-dependent results across test articles and select reference molecules may be informative

Libraries/References

  • We work with in-house compound libraries and commercially available libraries
  • Through custom services, we can onboard additional reference compounds or libraries

SCREENSHOT7-crop

 

BLOG POST | 3 MIN READ

Cell Painting in Preclinical Safety and Toxicology: Literally Taking a Closer Look

Cell Painting offers immense potential for the future of drug discovery. Learn more about this powerful, imaging-based technique and how it can enhance preclinical safety and toxicology assessments of therapeutic candidates.

Start Reading
cell-painting-hepatocytes-2000x2000-dropshadow
cell-painting-app-note-thumbnail-1200x627

APPLICATION NOTE

Cell Painting App Note

This application note reviews the basics of cell painting and includes an example using human, iPSC-derived hepatocytes.

cell-painting-hepatocytes-blog-page-1200x627

BLOG POST | 3 MIN READ

Cell Painting in Preclinical Safety & Toxicology: Literally Taking a Closer Look

Learn more about how cell painting can enhance preclinical safety and toxicology assessments of therapeutic candidates.

cell-painting-astrocytes-1200x627

BLOG POST | 4 MIN READ

Cell Painting: A Powerful Tool for Deciphering Mechanism of Action in Drug Development

Learn how cell painting has emerged as a powerful tool for deciphering the MOA of novel compounds.

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CONTACT US

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

CONTACT US

ADVANTAGES OF CELL PAINTING 

  • Assess phenotypic differences between healthy and disease models.
  • Use treatments to detect early signs of off-target effects.
  • Available both as a pre-configured or fully bespoke assay.
  • High sensitivity of the assay allows for the detection of distinct differences in cell phenotypes while still capturing whole-cell formation.
  • Sophisticated, large datasets are ideal for machine learning and AI data approaches.
ORGANELLE OR STRUCTURE DYES
Nucleus Hoechst
Endoplasmic Reticulum Concanavalin A (Alexa Fluor 488)
Nucleoli & Cytoplasmic RNA SYTO 14
Golgi & Plasma Membrane Wheat germ agglutinin (Alexa Fluor 555)
F-actin Phalloidin (Alexa Fluor 568)
Mitochondria MitoTracker Deep Red FM

APPLICATIONS OF CELL PAINTING IN DRUG DISCOVERY

Quality Control

The technique is highly sensitive to changes in phenotypes, making it useful for detecting assay instability.

Mechanism of Action (MOA)

Image profiles generated by Cell Painting are clustered by similarities in phenotypic readouts. The close clustering of a novel compound with unknown MOA to that with compounds of a known MOA suggest that they share a common or similar MOA.

Assay Development

Cell Painting can be used to discover phenotypic differences between disease and healthy cell models. If differences are found, then it can potentially be used as the readout in a screening campaign.

CONTACT US

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