Cell painting technology holds promise for drug discovery

The high-throughput screening platform of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the University of Montreal obtains $583,654 from the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy of Quebec to following a call for projects launched as part of the Quebec Research and Investment in Innovation Strategy 2022-2027. The funded project aims to integrate real-time cell painting and artificial intelligence phenotypic classification technology for drug discovery.

Modeling disease processes to accelerate drug discovery

Observing live the morphology of cells exposed to different experimental conditions: this is what the real-time cell painting technique allows. To achieve this, fluorescent probes are used to mark cellular subcompartments. Using a so-called “high-content” screening approach, images of the labeled cells are then obtained for each experimental condition studied. Any type of cell culture can be analyzed using this approach, including organoids (three-dimensional cellular models that mimic the architecture and functioning of organs).

As thousands of experimental conditions can be tested in parallel and the use of live cells greatly increases the number of data points produced, the amount of images to be analyzed is considerable. The integration of artificial intelligence tools based on machine learning will make it possible to process this mass of data and classify the observed cell morphologies.

This real-time cell painting technology can have multiple applications in drug discovery: designation of therapeutic targets, screening of compound libraries, optimization of compounds or even characterization of mechanisms of action of compounds.

“By allowing the study of hundreds of parameters simultaneously, this approach has the potential to accelerate drug discovery programs, improve the selection of candidates and therefore greatly reduce development costs,” underlines Manon Valiquette, director of the operations of IRIC’s scientific platforms.

The grant obtained, which will support the highly qualified staff of IRIC’s high-throughput screening platform for a period of three years, will make it possible to strengthen the service offering at the Institute, at UdeM and in Quebec.

“High-throughput screening techniques increasingly integrate the use of complex biological models, which are more predictive of therapeutic effects,” mentions Simon Mathien, head of the screening platform. Real-time cell painting is the most recent iteration of this technical evolution. By integrating this technology into IRIC, we allow our research community to be at the cutting edge of new screening approaches.”