/ en Tue, 31 Mar 26 11:19:45 -0400 /news/scalable-cell-imaging-method-could-help-make-drug-safety-testing-faster-cheaper <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Scalable cell imaging method could help make drug safety testing faster, cheaper</h1> </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <span>By Corie Lok</span> </span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2026-03-31T11:19:45-04:00" class="datetime">March 31, 2026</time> </span> <div class="hero-section container"> <div class="hero-section__row row"> <div class="hero-section__content hero-section__content_left col-6"> <div class="hero-section__breadcrumbs"> <div class="block block-system block-system-breadcrumb-block"> <nav class="breadcrumb" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="system-breadcrumb"> <h2 id="system-breadcrumb" class="visually-hidden">Breadcrumb</h2> <ol> <li> <a href="/">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="/news">News</a> </li> </ol> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__title"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storytitle"> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"><h1>Scalable cell imaging method could help make drug safety testing faster, cheaper</h1> </span> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__description"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storybody"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers show that Cell Painting, an image-based cell profiling method, can reveal details of how drug candidates and other chemicals may harm cells.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__author"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-extra-field-blocknodelong-storyextra-field-author-custom"> By Corie Lok </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__date"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storycreated"> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2026-03-31T11:19:45-04:00" title="Tuesday, March 31, 2026 - 11:19" class="datetime">March 31, 2026</time> </span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="hero-section__right col-6"> <div class="hero-section__image"> <div class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-content-types-header"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture role="img" aria-label="Color microscopy image showing treated human liver cells."> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/longstory/OASIS%20paper%20crop3.png?h=612fae3f&itok=ApL7ibnv 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"/> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop_xl/public/longstory/OASIS%20paper%20crop3.png?h=612fae3f&itok=ApL7ibnv 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/png" width="754" height="503"/> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_desktop/public/longstory/OASIS%20paper%20crop3.png?h=612fae3f&itok=6kFAf7RD 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/png" width="736" height="520"/> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_laptop/public/longstory/OASIS%20paper%20crop3.png?h=612fae3f&itok=_2cTGUlz 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/png" width="641" height="451"/> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_tablet/public/longstory/OASIS%20paper%20crop3.png?h=612fae3f&itok=zs72atN3 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/png" width="706" height="417"/> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/longstory/OASIS%20paper%20crop3.png?h=612fae3f&itok=mb5PW5aG 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/png" width="499" height="294"/> <img loading="eager" width="499" height="294" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_header_phone/public/longstory/OASIS%20paper%20crop3.png?h=612fae3f&itok=mb5PW5aG" alt="Color microscopy image showing treated human liver cells." title="Color microscopy image showing treated human liver cells." typeof="foaf:Image" /> </picture> </div> <div class="media-caption"> <div class="media-caption__credit"> Credit: Axiom Bio </div> <div class="media-caption__description"> Human liver cells treated with a cancer drug are imaged under a microscope using a method called Cell Painting. </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block block-better-social-sharing-buttons block-social-sharing-buttons-block"> <div style="display: none"><link rel="preload" href="/modules/contrib/better_social_sharing_buttons/assets/dist/sprites/social-icons--no-color.svg" as="image" type="image/svg+xml" crossorigin="anonymous" /></div> <div class="social-sharing-buttons"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=/taxonomy/term/2801/feed&title=" target="_blank" title="Share to Facebook" aria-label="Share to Facebook" class="social-sharing-buttons-button share-facebook" rel="noopener"> <svg aria-hidden="true" width="32px" height="32px" style="border-radius:100%;"> <use href="/modules/contrib/better_social_sharing_buttons/assets/dist/sprites/social-icons--no-color.svg#facebook" /> </svg> </a> <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=+/taxonomy/term/2801/feed" 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class="paragraph paragraph--type--text-with-sidebar text-with-sidebar"> <div class="field field--name-field-sidebar field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--sidebar-articles sidebar-articles"> <div class="sidebar-articles__col"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Related news</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-content-reference field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><article about="/news/collaboration-aims-reduce-animal-use-drug-safety-testing" class="node"> <div class="field field--name-field-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-multiple-ct-sidebar-link-with-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture role="img" aria-label="Human liver cells imaged with the Cell Painting assay"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/OASIS_main.jpg?itok=OHSQZFFM 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1921px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop_xl/public/longstory/OASIS_main.jpg?itok=OHSQZFFM 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1601px) and (max-width: 1920px)" type="image/jpeg" width="104" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/OASIS_main.jpg?itok=2EFwMx8u 1x" media="all and (min-width: 1340px) and (max-width: 1600px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_desktop/public/longstory/OASIS_main.jpg?itok=2EFwMx8u 1x" media="all and (min-width: 800px) and (max-width: 1339px)" type="image/jpeg" width="87" height="104"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_tablet/public/longstory/OASIS_main.jpg?itok=UfBm7Ppi 1x" media="all and (min-width: 540px) and (max-width: 799px)" type="image/jpeg" width="285" height="186"> <source srcset="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/OASIS_main.jpg?itok=HbORb6Qw 1x" media="all and (max-width: 539px)" type="image/jpeg" width="220" height="186"> <a href="/news/collaboration-aims-reduce-animal-use-drug-safety-testing"><img loading="eager" width="220" height="186" src="/files/styles/multiple_ct_sidebar_link_with_image_phone/public/longstory/OASIS_main.jpg?itok=HbORb6Qw" alt="Human liver cells imaged with the Cell Painting assay" title="Human liver cells imaged with the Cell Painting assay" typeof="foaf:Image"></a> </picture> </div> </article> </div> <div class="node__content"> <a href="/news/collaboration-aims-reduce-animal-use-drug-safety-testing" class="node__title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Collaboration aims to reduce animal use in drug safety testing</span> </a> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Many drug candidates fail in early-stage clinical trials because of toxic effects in humans that weren’t seen in animal tests. Testing these chemicals in human cells in the lab could help detect these adverse effects sooner and at lower cost, while reducing the need for animal testing.</p> <p>In a new study published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405471226000487"><em>Cell Systems</em></a>, ӳ����ý researchers, in collaboration with scientists with the <a href="https://oasisconsortium.org/">Omics for Assessing Signatures for Integrated Safety (OASIS) consortium</a>, have shown how a scalable, image-based cell profiling method called Cell Painting promises to be a much more efficient way to detect toxicity than current methods.</p> <p>“I’m really excited about this work because there’s a huge problem that most of the chemicals that we use, for example in manufacturing and consumer products, haven’t been well tested or monitored for toxicity,” said Jess Ewald, first author on the paper and a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Cambridge UK who did the study as a postdoc in the laboratory of study co-authors <a href="/bios/anne-e-carpenter">Anne Carpenter</a> and <a href="/bios/shantanu-singh">Shantanu Singh</a> at the ӳ����ý.</p> <p>“I think we could improve human health quite a lot if we had better, faster, cheaper tools like this to get a better handle on the effects of drugs and other chemicals on our cells,” she said.</p> <h2>What did the researchers do?</h2> <p>Cell Painting uses fluorescent dyes to label eight different cell components and measure thousands of molecular changes in the cells in response to chemical exposure, which are then captured by a microscope. In the new study, the team trained a Cell Painting-based AI model on large amounts of data from hundreds of cell-based chemical toxicity tests.</p> <p>They exposed human liver cells in a dish to more than 1,000 different chemicals at different concentrations. They took Cell Painting images of the cells, and then used their AI model to analyze the images and look for signs of biological changes that can lead to toxic effects. The team ran conventional cell-based toxicity tests on those same cells and compared how their Cell Painting method performed.</p> <h2>What did they find?</h2> <p>The scientists discovered that compared to existing cell toxicity tests, Cell Painting could rapidly provide a more detailed view on how chemicals are harming cells — such as which proteins or biochemical pathways were affected. The method captured hundreds of changes in the cells, generating insights from a single measurement that would normally come from hundreds of individual tests.</p> <p>Cell Painting could also accurately detect changes in the cells exposed to chemicals known to be harmful to cells. And it could do so at much lower concentrations of the chemicals, confirming that Cell Painting can pick up on many more molecular changes in the cell than conventional tests.</p> <h2>Why is this important?</h2> <p>Knowing the details on how chemicals affect cells could lead to a better understanding of not just which chemicals are potentially toxic, but also why. In drug development, this insight could help researchers design better drugs with fewer side effects.</p> <p>The scientists are already using the tools they developed for this study to assess the effects of hundreds to thousands of chemicals that haven’t been well studied at all.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="field field--name-field-paragraph field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Funding</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Support for this research was provided by Banting and SOT Syngenta postdoctoral fellowships, the National Institutes of Health, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and the Omics for Assessing Signatures for Integrated Safety (OASIS) Consortium, which is supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--table-outro-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-heading field--type-text field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paper cited:</p> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Ewald JD et al. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405471226000487">Cell Painting for cytotoxicity and mode-of-action analysis in primary human hepatocytes</a>. <em>Cell Systems</em>. Online March 27, 2026. DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2026.101566</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content-section container"> <div class="content-section__main"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodelong-storyfield-broad-tags"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__row"> <div class="block-node-broad-tags__title">Tags:</div> <div class="field field--name-field-broad-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/image-based-profiling" hreflang="en">Image-Based Profiling</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/broad-tags/anne-carpenter" hreflang="en">Anne Carpenter</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:19:45 +0000 Corie Lok 5560336 at