IMPROVE YOUR DRUG
DISCOVERY PROCESS

TARGET IDENTIFICATION

Find the right target for your treatments in record time with Genel

High-Content screening (HCS) is part of the solution to the challenge of discovering new therapeutic targets and thus new drugs. And functional genomics (screening to determine gene function and expression) is used to induce the overexpression or, on the contrary, extinction of specific genes in a cell. Imagine each gene as having a switch that can be turned on, off, up, or down. Depending on the position of the switch, the effects on other genes present in the cell and, ultimately, on the organism will vary. Screening results can be used to unlock the door of a disease caused by a defective gene so that therapeutic targets with which a drug molecule is going to interact can be identified. These therapeutic targets indicate the gene that must be affected for cell function to return to normal.

3D TARGET VALIDATION

Reduce the drugs failure in the clinical steps

Phenotypic screening is a straightforward way to discover relevant hits to search for biologically active molecules. Identifying molecular targets of active hits is not sufficient. It is necessary to confirm the phenotypic response and validate that the modulation of the identified target induces a functional effect. In addition, the 2-D artificial condition for studying cancer in vitro does not sufficiently mimic how the physiological tumor will react to a drug. Therefore, the 3-D models, in particular multi-cellular organoids, represent a more physiologically relevant model. This model naturally mimics tumors, is simple to create and allows for reliability when measuring phenotypes. The major challenges for the use of organoids in high-throughput functional screening tend to have a visualization process specifically committed to 3-D structures and robust and reliable data analysis. To overcome these challenges, we have been developing an innovative and powerful phenotypic screening process dedicated to 3D models. It merges two innovative methodologies:

•     An imaging strategy dedicated to 3D cell cultures in multi-well plates (96 wells, 384 wells…).   
•     A proprietary statistical data processing - a new robust score dedicated to 3D models.  

2D TARGET DECONVOLUTION

Improve your drug through a better understanding of how it works

With a thorough expertise in functional genomics, Genel has been developing an innovative and powerful phenotypic screening process to overcome the new challenge of the target deconvolution. Genel can give you valuable insights into a drug's mechanisms of action, and reduce your current time-to-market. Understanding a molecule's mechanisms of action also helps prevent unwanted side effects and paves the way for the discovery of new therapeutic molecules. And, when it comes to hospital admissions, adverse effects are one of the main culprits. In practice, side effects are discovered during specific assays during the clinical trial phase. Even if a potential treatment is promising, the clinical trial may still fail due to toxicity.