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PhenomeX Launches Beacon Quest™ Optofluidic System with Opto® T Cell Profiling Workflows

PRNewswire | June 06, 2023 | Read time : 05:00 min

PhenomeX Launches Beacon

PhenomeX Inc. the functional cell biology company, announced the launch of the Beacon Quest™ optofluidic system, with Opto® T Cell Profiling workflows for immunotherapy translational research and a platform price under $1 million USD, less than half of the higher-throughput Beacon system, enabling broader accessibility to the cutting-edge technology critical for next-generation precision medicine.

The Opto T Cell Profiling workflows have enabled scientists to comprehensively profile single T cells to correlate polyfunctionality with cytotoxicity and recover those same cells for downstream analysis such as transcriptome and genome sequencing, revealing functional connections of phenotype with molecular mechanism. This depth of understanding of biology and response to therapeutics is not available on any other platform. Combined with the value-matched Beacon Quest system, more academic, non-profit, and government customers can now access the power of optofluidic and NanoPen® chamber technology and propriety single T Cell Profiling applications along with the optimum level of features to meet their research and budgetary needs.

"At PhenomeX, we are excited to launch the Beacon Quest, as it supports our objective of offering scientists and researchers globally the ability to affordably access the main applications of the Beacon system, including antibody discovery, cell line development and single-cell functional multiomic T-cell profiling," said Siddhartha Kadia, Ph.D., chief executive officer of PhenomeX. "We look forward to partnering with and providing significant value in the academic research segments, particularly in immuno-oncology translational cancer centers and innovative cell and gene therapy development centers."

Beacon Quest for T Cell Profiling Workflow Features

Opto T Cell Profiling workflows on the Beacon Quest system enable multi-functional characterization of single T cells, including for development of efficacious immunotherapies and cell-based cancer therapeutics, that are ideally suited for academic, non-profit, and government customers.

The Beacon Quest system enables a variety of assays to profile single T cells including detection of cytokine secretion, cytotoxicity, cell surface markers, transcriptome profiling and TCRSeq, with the potential to study growth characteristics and cell motility. The resulting analysis is used to identify cells with phenotypes of interest and guide recovery of the same cells for downstream assays, enabling researchers to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying biology by

  • Investigating molecular mechanisms associated with polyfunctional T cells;
  • Identifying desirable phenomes by correlating polyfunctionality with cytotoxicity; and
  • Linking desirable phenotypes to T cell receptor sequences of the same cells.

In addition to supporting the Opto T Cell Profiling workflows, Beacon Quest will enable customers to access the Opto B Discovery workflows and Opto Cell Line Development workflows. To further increase customer accessibility and affordability, PhenomeX will also offer reduced priced OptoSelect® chips (OptoSelect® Research chips) for Beacon Quest, helping academic customers accelerate the pace of scientific discovery for clinical research use applications.

About PhenomeX Inc.

PhenomeX is empowering scientists to leverage the full potential of each cell and drive the next era of functional cell biology that will advance human health. We enable scientists to reveal the most complete insights on cell function and obtain a full view of the behavior of each cell. Our unique suite of proven high-throughput tools and services offer unparalleled resolution and speed, accelerating the insights that are key to advancing discoveries that can profoundly improve the prevention and treatment of disease. Our award-winning platforms are used by researchers across the globe, including those at the top 15 global pharmaceutical companies and approximately 85% of leading U.S. comprehensive cancer centers.

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prnewswire | September 01, 2023

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prnewswire | September 01, 2023

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Businesswire | August 03, 2023

A new study demonstrates how the combination of DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) and NanoBRET Target Engagement technology can accelerate early-stage drug discovery. Reported in Cell Chemical Biology, researchers from Promega Corporation and WuXi AppTec generated new chemical probes from molecules identified through a DEL screen. This research opens new opportunities to develop novel NanoBRET Target Engagement Assays aimed at many understudied classes of proteins, rapidly accelerating “hit to lead” efforts in identifying new potential therapeutics. Generating Novel Chemical Probes from DELs DELs are increasingly popular tools used to rapidly screen billions of molecules for early-stage drug discovery. Each molecule is tagged with a short DNA “barcode” that can be used to identify those that successfully bind to a given target. In the Cell Chemical Biology paper, scientists from Promega and WuXi AppTec aimed to develop new chemical probes using molecules selected from these massive pools. These probes would be used in a NanoBRET Target Engagement Assay, a tool for studying the interaction between a chemical compound and its target protein in live cells. The authors screened 16.8 billion compounds from WuXi AppTec’s 41 established DELs against aurora kinase A, a protein implicated in the invasive growth of certain cancers. They identified two representative “hits” that bound to the target and developed a method to replace the DNA barcode of each “hit” with a fluorophore. The fluorophore is responsible for the light signal generated in a NanoBRET assay in live human cells. The team found that this new probe could be used effectively to characterize novel inhibitors targeting aurora kinase A, providing critical engagement characteristics such as affinity, selectivity and cellular permeability. “It was very clever of the authors to appreciate that the DEL read-out not only identified a chemical binder for a protein, but also a place to attach a tracer,” says Aled Edwards, Chief Executive of the Structural Genomics Consortium, a public-private partnership that develops open-access chemical probes to support drug discovery and development. “One can only imagine what could be if there were DEL hits for all human proteins.” Accelerating Drug Discovery The authors demonstrate that DELs can benefit chemical biologists who require verification of live cell target engagement for their protein of interest. This is particularly beneficial for understudied protein classes that may not have existing chemical probes. Additionally, they note that the NanoBRET assays help drug discovery researchers accelerate their workflow by providing data used to identify the most promising leads. They conclude, “Our findings support that DEL-derived BRET probes facilitate prioritization of not only the chemical matter identified from the DEL but may also serve as general live-cell screening tools for surveying broader chemotypic diversity at the target of interest.” Read the open access paper, “DELs enable the development of BRET probes for target engagement studies in cells”. About Promega Corporation Promega Corporation is a leader in providing innovative solutions and technical support to the life sciences industry. The company’s portfolio of over 4,000 products supports a range of life science work across areas such as cell biology; DNA, RNA and protein analysis; drug development; human identification and molecular diagnostics. These tools and technologies have grown in their application over the last 45 years and are used today by scientists and technicians in labs for academic and government research, forensics, pharmaceuticals, clinical diagnostics and agricultural and environmental testing. Promega is headquartered in Madison, WI, USA with branches in 16 countries and over 50 global distributors.

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PRNewswire | July 10, 2023

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