Blood Cell-Based Assay Services

• Assess T cell activation and cytokine release potential of your drug candidates
• Enable IND submissions with soluble, wet bound, and air-dried presentations to fulfill Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements
• Evaluate antibody-based drugs, small molecules, and CAR-T cells within oncology and across other therapeutic areas
• Alternatively adapt to evaluating restriction of cytokine release by allergy and anti-inflammatory drugs
• Facilitate drug candidate comparison with commercially availablecare drugs with known stimulatory or inhibitory properties

Discovery’s HbF induction assay service screens drugs for their ability to increase levels of fetal hemoglobin (HbF), a high affinity oxygen transport protein that has been successful in easing serious hemoglobinopathy impacts.

Our service offers the ability to screen multiple compounds at once and allows for HbF induction comparison between test drugs and hydroxyurea (HU), the current, but suboptimal, standard of care for sickle cell disease (SCD) treatment.

Advanced, IND-Enabling Drug Screening for SCD and Hemoglobinopathies

• Screen potential drugs for SCD and other hemoglobinopathies, including β-thalassemia
• Confirm potential synergistic effects when tested in combination with HU
• Use primary human CD34+ cells that are expertly expanded and induced to differentiate along the erythroid (red blood cell) lineage
• Allow for a relatively high throughput with 96-well formats
• Measure HbF directly by flow cytometry and ELISA, as opposed to indirect assays evaluating RNA transcript numbers

Discovery’s antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) assay services help assess yourantibody's ability to facilitate effector cell-mediated cell killing by natural killer (NK) cells. Our experts can also help you screen your antibodies for complement events in our complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) assay.

ADCC Assay Service

• Allow you to rank your antibody candidates’ tumor/cancer cell killing effectiveness
• Evaluate bi-specific antibodies and other immune cell modulators
• Use primary cells (PBMCs, specific enriched cell populations, or pre-screened natural killer V158+ cells) for biologically relevant data
• Provide flow cytometry-based readouts
• Adapt to your program’s customized needs

CDC Assay Services

• Screen antibody-based therapeutics for complement events
• Facilitate safety profiling
• Ensure better responses by using fresh blood (<4 hours old)
• Provide flow cytometry readouts

By utilizing our state-of-the-art technologies and expert knowledge, Discovery’s mast cell activation (MCA) assay service helps preclinical researchers identify compounds that could potentially reverse mast cell activation, as measured by CD63 expression.

• Predicts drug candidate efficacy in mast cell activation assay
• Uses primary CD34+ cells cultured with specific growth factors to generate mature mast cells
• Adapts to your needs – We will test compounds for activation/deactivation or provide you with mature cells for your specific allergy program

While megakaryocytic colony forming cell (CFC) assays are predictive of thrombocytopenia caused by drugs impacting the primitive progenitor stage, toxicity can also occur at later stages of cell development.

Discovery’s megakaryocyte maturation and platelet development assay services assess the off-target toxicity potential of your drug candidate on developing megakaryocytes and megakaryocyte-derived platelets at different stages of cell development.

• Predict drug candidate toxicity to developing megakaryocytes and platelets
• Use primary CD34+ cells cultured with specific growth factors to induce megakaryocytic lineage differentiation
• Adapt to your needs-liquid culture allows for drug administration and/or washing out at multiple timepoints, simulating clinical treatment options
• Track megakaryocytic development and drug interference using flow cytometry
• Deepen toxicity understanding with biologically relevant data

While myeloid and erythroid colony forming cell (CFC) assays are predictive of neutropenia and severe anemia caused by drugs impacting the primitive progenitor stage, toxicity can also occur at later stages of cell development.

Discovery’s myeloid and erythroid cell maturation assay services further assess the off-target toxicity potential of your drug candidate on developing neutrophils and red blood cells at different stages of cell development.

• Predict drug candidate toxicity to developing neutrophils and red blood cells
• Use primary CD34+ cells cultured with specific growth factors to induce myeloid or erythroid lineage differentiation
• Adapt to your needs-liquid culture allows for drug administration and/or washing out at multiple timepoints, simulating clinical treatment options
• Track neutrophil and red blood cell development and drug interference using flow cytometry
• Deepen toxicity understanding with biologically relevant data

Discovery has a team of highly skilled and collaborative cell biology experts who can replicate protocols or publications you would like to use for evaluating the function of your compounds.

Additionally, you have the option to choose from one of Discovery’s standard assay platforms. Experienced in replicating blood cell-based protocols and publications.

• Enable a range of customized services: Redirected T cell killing assays
• Mixed lymphocyte reactions (MLR) to evaluate checkpoint inhibitor function
• CAR-T cell biology