(1103-D) High Content Phenotypic Screening of Cell Paint Assays on Araceli Endeavor®
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST
Location: Exhibit Halls AB
Abstract: High content imaging (HCI) has become a critical tool in drug discovery, enabling the assessment of multiple cellular phenotypic features in a single experiment. However, traditional HCI systems can be time-consuming and require expert operation. The Compound Management and Screening Center (COMAS) at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund presents the results of their evaluation of Araceli Endeavor® (Araceli Biosciences), a new HCI platform that increases throughput by more than 12 times industry standard. Cell Painting is a widely used method for profiling cellular phenotypes in response to drug treatments or genetic modifications. Cell Painting involves labeling cells with different fluorescent dyes to visualize different cellular components including the nucleus, cytoplasm, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and cell membrane. The resulting images are analyzed and cellular features extracted to generate a quantitative profile of cellular phenotypes. To demonstrate the capabilities of Araceli Endeavor®, Cell Painting was performed using U2OS cells seeded in 384 well plates and treated with a compound library. The plates were imaged successively by a human operator. Currently, a 41-plate screen takes approximately 136 hours to image, whereas Endeavor completed the entire 41 plate scan in 7 hours including plate handling time (~25 minutes) and image acquisition setup (~5 minutes) resulting in a 94.9% reduction in total screening time. Endeavor features 0.27µm/pixel resolution and a 4400x4400 pixel field of view. For this study 2x2 images were acquired of each well yielding overall coverage of 2.4mm x 2.4mm per well. Analysis showed that the images acquired with Endeavor had comparable or better quality than those acquired with a traditional imaging system. In addition to significantly higher throughput, the user-friendly interface and streamlined acquisition setup process made the new system easy to learn and fast to setup. In conclusion, Araceli Endeavor® provides a faster and more accessible solution for phenotypic profiling assays. Advanced optics and high-speed camera enable the acquisition of high-quality images, while a user-friendly interface and streamlined workflow make it accessible to researchers of all levels of expertise. By enabling more efficient and reliable imaging of cellular features, the Araceli HCI platform has the potential to dramatically accelerate drug discovery and development.