Advanced Assay Systems

When you are faced with a target that cannot be tackled using traditional approaches, our scientists will support you in implementing advanced HCA assays. This can include complex phenotypic readouts at the population or single cell-levels, live-cell kinetics, or stem-cell-based systems. These assays can be multiplexed and made HTS-compatible using small molecules or CRISPR libraries. In addition, we have experience in designing HTS-compatible assays to identify molecular glues, PROTACs, and small molecules targeting RNAs or protein condensates.

Our scientists are experienced in implementing assays based on a wide variety of eukaryotic cells (animal, plant, and fungi) or bacteria, as well as cell-free systems.

Phenotypic Readouts

1. Sub-cellular (re)localization of target
2. Organelles
3. Intra-cellular structures
4. Experience of many screening campaigns with > 4 million compounds

Cell Painting

1. Workflow according to the JUMP-Cell Painting Consortium
2. Provided data to the JUMP-Cell Painting Consortium

Cellular and Protein-Based Protein–Protein Interaction Assays
Identification of PROTACs or Molecular Glues
- High-throughput cellular assays to measure protein stability
- Assays based on immunofluorescence or targets tagged with fluorescent proteins
- Identification of several novel compounds

Protein Condensates
- Identification of protein condensates within cells
- Identification of small-molecule modulators of protein condensates
- Original work on p53 condensates published in Lemos, C., et al., Identification of Small Molecules that Modulate Mutant p53 Condensation. iScience (2020)

RNA-Targeting Small Molecules
- Ultra-sensitive visualization of single mRNA and lncRNA localization and abundance by FISH
- In-house development of first dual FISH-HTS
- Original work published in Zablowsky, N., et al., High Throughput FISH Screening Identifies Small Molecules That Modulate Oncogenic lncRNA MALAT1 via GSK3B and hnRNPs. Non-Coding RNA (2023)