Cell Painting
Many cellular perturbations lead to observable changes in cell morphology whereby similar perturbations induce similar changes. Thus, using high-throughput microscopy and automated image analysis, a catalogue of cellular morphologies, e.g., under compound treatment, can be recorded. One of the most prominent morphological profiling protocols is the Cell Painting Assay (CPA) which stains eight cellular compartments in five different fluorescent channels. Several thousand features are deduced from every cell using high-end image analysis software, e.g., CellProfiler, which altogether deliver the morphological profile of the cellular condition.
COMAS established a large morphological database including more than 4500 profiles of reference compounds and more than 50000 profiles of test compounds. Consensus profiles for a variety of biological mechanisms (subprofiles) have been defined and validated which now enable the high-throughput annotation of large compound collections.
CPA is routinely run on all academic compounds that enter the COMAS collection as well as validated hit compounds from our screening campaigns. It has e.g., enabled the identification of new chemotypes for the inhibition of Aurora kinase or the Eg5 motor protein.