This technology is a multiplexed vibrational imaging platform for large-scale single-cell analysis of drug responses, enabling the identification of mechanisms of action, drug resistance, and the effects of combination therapies.
Single-cell drug response measurements are crucial for drug discovery, as cellular phenotype, gene expression, and metabolic activity can vary significantly between individual cells and across different disease contexts. Single-cell measurements also provide valuable insights into drug mechanism of action, drug-induced molecular changes, and drug resistance. Current methods for drug response measurements utilize electrical, optical, mass spectrometry, or singling approaches. However, these methods have several limitations, including low throughput and sensitivity, as well as complexity and high cost. There is a clear need for a scalable, high-content, and minimally invasive method that captures cellular heterogeneity and accurately characterizes the effects of drugs at the single-cell level.
This technology is a method that examines single-cell drug responses by integrating mid-infrared imaging, multiplexed vibrational microspectrometry, and a data analysis pipeline for large-scale measurements. This technology includes three infrared-active vibrational probes that can measure distinct metabolic activities in drug-perturbed cell phenotypes. The data analysis pipeline incorporates machine learning to predict drug mechanisms of action with high accuracy, minimal batch effects, and in a high-throughput manner. Thus, this technology has the potential to advance translational drug research and drug discovery.
This technology has been validated on human cancer cell lines, profiling over 10,000 single-cell drug responses across 15 different drugs.
Patent Pending (WO/2024249409)
IR CU23332
Licensing Contact: Dovina Qu
