Novel Bioassays in Picodroplets for Single Cell Analysis

Pooled knockout screening with CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized drug discovery and has evolved to become the backbone of many drug discovery pipelines. Though powerful in its own right, pooled CRISPR screening is often restricted to measuring a single phenotype such as proliferation or cell survival or simple phenotypic changes, such as measurement of changes in a single gene’s activity through the generation of a reporter cell line.

Prior to 2022, monkeypox virus was a rare cause of disease in humans with most cases being associated with travel to the continent of Africa or contact with animals from Africa. However, monkeypox is currently causing the largest outbreak in recorded history, with nearly 80,000 confirmed cases worldwide.

In a constant battle to find more efficient and effective ways to test oncology preclinical candidates, 3D in vitro culture methods for PDX-derived tumor cells have shown promise of in vivo-like growth characteristics, invasion, and responses to therapeutics. With these methods, we can perform high-throughput in vitro PDX screening that identifies active and selective molecules, and select favorable PDX tumor models for subsequent validation of candidates in vivo.

Fluidigm introduced its Maxpar Human Immune Monitoring Panel Kit for comprehensive immune cell profiling in cancer and immune-mediated diseases. The immune monitoring kit contains 29 metal-labeled antibodies and reagents designed for deep immune profiling of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in one tube. The single-tube assay enables combinatorial information to be obtained from each sample, eliminates daughter tube variation, and offers a simplified workflow that reduces hands-on time, the company says. The kit is designed for use with the Helios system for mass cytometry.