BioFocus DPI Enhances High-Content Screening Capabilities

BioFocus DPI announces that it has significantly enhanced its high-content screening capabilities through the implementation of precision liquid handling instruments and advanced cell imaging devices. As part of BioFocus DPI’s Intelligent Screening platform, high-content screening is paired with the use of disease-relevant assays in human primary cells to provide detailed information on the effect proteins and small molecules have on a disease phenotype. The technique is particularly useful for small molecule mechanism-of-action studies and disease pathway analyses used in target discovery campaigns.

With a newly acquired Caliper Zephyr liquid handling instrument and wide-field (Incell1000) and confocal (BD Pathway™) imaging devices, BioFocus DPI has increased both the throughput and quality of its high-content screening and imaging capabilities. This enables BioFocus DPI to further develop customized, biologically-relevant assays for partners’ discovery programs. BioFocus DPI customers utilizing PrimePath™ (compound screening service that uses disease-relevant assays in human primary cells) and its proprietary adenoviral shRNA target discovery platform will benefit from BioFocus DPI’s expertise within a wide range of target classes and disease areas.

“Through continued investment in our high-content screening capabilities, we aim to meet the growing customer demand for information-rich small molecule and target screening,” said Kate Hilyard, VP Biological Sciences, BioFocus DPI. “These latest instruments extend our ability to monitor molecular events in complex, cell-based assays over long periods, thereby enriching our understanding of how and when a compound or protein plays a role in a disease process.”

To highlight these high-content screening capabilities, BioFocus DPI will be presenting two posters at this week’s High-Content Analysis meeting in San Francisco:

Drugable genome-wide RNAi screen in Huntington disease applying high-content analysis

High-content screen for inhibitors of cell migration in cancer metastasis using adenoviral knock-down in a wound healing assay