Our software to assist in the image analysis for high content screening in drug discovery is reaching far and beyond
Licensed by PerkinElmer, a supplier of innovative tools and technologies for life sciences and pharmaceutical drug discovery, our Neurite Outgrowth Analysis Software has been adopted by 247 licensees in 2019.
The Neurite Outgrowth Analysis is an automated solution for the neurite outgrowth assays commonly used in target identification/validation and compound screening in drug discovery. This analysis algorithm can be used for the analysis of both fluorescence and bright-field microscopy images. Measuring changes in cell morphology and characterising complex cellular structures such as neurite outgrowth are challenging tasks, especially with a dense image as shown below. Manually or semi-automatically doing these is a time-consuming, labour intensive process, and the results are subjective and undermining reliability.
The software has been developed to automate the process, reproducibly analysing a complex image in seconds. It can be used to automatically batch-process tens of thousands images produced from a high content screening system. This can significantly promote the productivity in the pharmaceutical industry for the rapid identification of active drug candidates from millions of compounds.
A typical dense image with many “clumped” neurons and overlapped neurite structures. Left image shows a high degree of neurite branching complexity. Images courtesy of Marjo Götte, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Right image displays the segmented neurons and neurites using our software.
Through collaborative partnerships we have developed custom solutions for more complex neurite outgrowth assays, such as neurite detection and analysis in 2D images of co-cultures of neurons and support cells, as well as 3D neurite detection and analysis in 2-photon confocal 3D images of neurons.
Apart from licensing our cellular image analysis modules to commercial partners, we have also developed a standalone software package, HCA-Vision, which offers powerful functionalities for the analysis of cellular images. It features an easy to use graphical user interface, extensive reporting capabilities, and fast processing. The package is being used by biomedical research institutes and pharma companies in Australia and overseas.
Our highly skilled team of world class researchers and engineers is open to partnerships and collaborations for research, development, and commercialisation.
Contact us to learn more.