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 diseaserelevant 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 knockdown in a wound healing assay

About BioFocus DPI

BioFocus DPI aims to expand its partners’ drug pipelines by accelerating the gene-to-candidate discovery process. This is achieved through a comprehensive discovery platform, which includes target discovery in human primary cells, focused as well as diverse compound libraries, in vitro and cell-based screening, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, ADME/PK services, supported by unique chemogenomic and informatics tools, and compound library acquisition, storage and distribution services. As the service division of Galapagos, BioFocus DPI has over 250 employees in four countries worldwide.