Researchers trained computers to look at photographs of cells labeled with fluorescent probes (left) and pick out nuclei, outlined in the middle panel, to generate a complex fingerprint (right) of drug action. |
Method automates capture of cell image dataA new type of drug profiling will be useful in identifying the biological targets of experimental compounds and predicting drug toxicity. "This work brings microscopy into the 'omics' era," said Timothy Mitchison, the Hasib Sabbagh professor of systems biology, codirector of the Harvard Medical School Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology (ICCB) and co-author on the work, which was reported in the Nov. 12, 2004 Science. In the study, the researchers treated human cancer cells with widely varying concentrations of 100 different chemical compounds known to affect cell growth and metabolism. To measure changes in the cells' behavior, they used fluorescent stains for DNA and 10 different proteins. |
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