DATE: August 9, 2018
TIME: 7:00AM PDT

With the advent of cost-effective culturing approaches, 3D cell culture models (3D-CCMs) have been rapidly adopted for drug discovery since they provide a more physiologically relevant micro-environment; showing improved predictive utility for assessing drug efficacy and/or toxicity when compared to traditional 2D monolayer models. High-content analysis/screening (HCA/HCS) also plays a major role in drug screening, but one of the unique challenges of evaluating 3D-CCMs (i.e. spheroids, organoids, micro-tissues, organs-on-a-chip) is their opacity and thickness that limit optical imaging to only the outermost layers (~20=30 microns). Since the outermost cells are exposed to different physiological test conditions (oxygen, nutrients, media exchange, drug dosing), current image-based approaches induce a bias in the results since the outer layer of cells are found in a significantly different micro-environment than the interior. This shortcoming is particularly problematic when ascertaining the relative effectiveness of current therapeutic agents (e.g. immunoglobulin-based therapeutics, anti-proliferatives) since their effects are likely to be localized or concentrated to the surface while their efficacy within the interior are obfuscated and not fully resolved. Visikol™ has shown that through the addition of high content confocal microscopy with the Thermo Scientific™ CellInsight™ CX7 LZR High-Content Analysis Platform and the Invitrogen™ CytoVista™ 3D Cell Culture Clearing Reagent that the entire population of cells within 3D-CCMs can be characterized.

Learning Objectives:

• Benefits of imaging 3D Cell Cultures 
• Practical considerations for buying a High-Content Analysis Platform