High-Content Cell Screening Service Now Available on a Contract Basis

A contract high-content cell screening service has been launched that will benefit researchers investigating various biological phenomena - including the cell cycle, RNAi profiling, angiogenesis, and signal pathway profiling.

High-content screening is the analysis of fluorescent cellular markers to measure multiple responses to biological stimuli or drug treatment. It has wide applications in drug discovery covering everything from target identification through to preclinical toxicology. To provide this type of screening for the general research community TTP LabTech (Melbourn, United Kingdom; www.ttplabtech.com) is now making its Acumen microplate cytometer available on a contract basis.

The Acumen is a unique laser scanning cytometer containing three lasers, 405 nm, 488 nm and 633 nm, which ensure compatibility with a wide variety of fluorescent probes. The instrument operates by scanning a laser through a wide field of view lens across the bottom of a microplate or slide. The speed of data acquisition is not affected by plate density and microplate types ranging from 24-well up to 3456-well (or four microscope slides) can all be rapidly analyzed. Scanning resolutions may be set to as low as 0.5 μ where very detailed, or small object analysis is required. The lasers fire sequentially to reduce crosstalk and give simultaneous detection in four photomultiplier tube (PMT) detectors, providing a maximum of 12 channels of content-rich data for true multiplexing at high throughputs. Acumen's maximum scanning resolution is equivalent to that achieved using a 20x microscope objective.

Acumen's patented approach to data analysis employs cytometric principles, rather than image analysis. The lasers scan the entire field of view collecting intensity readings at regular intervals using the four PMTs. Thresholding algorithms identify all fluorescent intensities above the solution background for automatic object identification. Laser scanning data collection combined with cytometric data analysis generates extremely fast and robust results.

TTP LabTech is now offering contract screening that will allow its clients to apply this expertise to new and demanding applications to support the drug discovery process.

"As the inventors of the Acumen, we have extensive experience in the use of this instrument for high-content screening and so we are well placed to apply its capabilities on behalf of our clients,” said Dr. Philip Blenkinsop, managing director of TTP LabTech. "In the past, prospective clients seeking direct access to high-content data have often asked us whether we can combine our in-house biology expertise with the latest lab tools to provide a complete package. We now feel that the time is right to introduce such a service to augment our existing product business.”

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