High-throughput human cell system for compound screening

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The advances in genomics and high throughput chemistry technologies have fueled the need for more rapid and biologically relevant methods to validate and prioritize lead compounds for new medicine development. Since much of the cost of drug development is due to drug failures (90% of drugs that enter clinical trials fail to become approved), providing better information earlier in the discovery process will result in significant cost savings for pharmaceutical companies and lower prices for consumers. BioSeek, Inc. is developing robust biological screening systems that provide in-depth biological information with improved pathophysiological relevance. BioMAP systems, based on Biological Multiplexed Activity Profiling, utilize primary human cell cultures in which multiple disease-relevant pathways are simultaneously active for characterization of chemical and genetic regulators of cell functions. High throughput cell profiling in a robust ELISA format using optimized proprietary sets of parameter measurements is used to rapidly identify drug mechanisms of action, off-target activities and preliminary cytotoxicity. The specific aims of this proposal include 1) scale up of an inflammation BioMAP assay systems suitable for screening compounds; 2) development of analytical tools that allow rapid identification of mechanism of action identification; 3) expansion of the database of reference compound activities; and 4) performance of pilot studies for discovery of novel therapeutic lead compounds.