Drug Discovery & Development

Advancing Drug Discovery & Development with Quantitative Live Cell Imaging

Drug discovery and development is a lengthy and expensive process, and cell-based drug screenings play an important role in basic research. HoloMonitor is designed for automated and detailed analysis of drug-dose responses in adherent cells. It uses non-invasive quantitative phase imaging (QPI) to identify cells which enables direct measurement of drug dose-response curves over time. In this way, you get accurate and reliable data without disturbing your cells.

HoloMonitor - A cell culture microscope directly inside your incubator

A label-free live cell analysis tool

Find out more how the HoloMonitor live cell imaging system is used in in vitro drug discovery & development!

Identify off-target effects of metformin

In recent years, identifying the different targets for already licensed drugs has gained importance. Metformin, an oral antidiabetic drug, might have other clinical use in various diseases.

Thus, the off-target effects of metformin were identified in this study. The authors used HoloMonitor cell morphology assay to measure cell area, cell volume, average thickness, and irregular parameters for cells treated with metformin.

Quantify cytotoxicity of the combination nanoparticles for drug treatment

In this publication, the authors showed that the codelivery of C6 ceramide and dox using a liposomal platform significantly correlates with an antiproliferative effect, which is due to the cell cycle regulation, and subsequent induction of apoptosis. The apoptosis event was quantified by measuring the decrease in the cell-occupied area using HoloMonitor cell morphology assay.

Visualize the cell change in targeted drug delivery

In order to simultaneously target bulk cancer cells to prevent cancer growth and metastases, researchers are developing different target drug delivery systems to improve the biodistribution and solubility properties of nano-carries in drug deliveries.

In this study, the authors have used monoclonal antibody-modified immunoliposomes for the targeted delivery of paclitaxel and salinomycin for cancer therapy. By using HoloMonitor, the authors measured the cell morphology, proliferation and cell division changes between treatments. The results confirmed the efficiency of the antibody-targeted liposomal preparation in the therapy of cancer by giving significantly better cellular division arrest profiles and cell death.

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The secrets to truly controlled cell experiments for in vitro drug development

Discover HoloMonitor Live Cell Assays

Learn more about what you can do with HoloMonitor

Realiable drug-response results with quantitative live cell imaging

The time-lapse videos show L929 cells untreated and drug-treated with 10 µM etoposide.

The time-lapse video shows the Cama-1 breast cancer cell line, which was treated with a cytotoxic compound.

Get inspired by other research fellows, and learn how HoloMonitor quantitative live cell imaging can benefit your drug discovery and development:

With the HoloMonitor M4 we are able to easily distinguish different cell types by their unique size, shape, and movement patterns. We can’t wait to see what new biology we will discover with this innovative approach! 

Alexander Payumo
San Jose State University