BiocipherX Inc. could accelerate drug discovery with a platform that weds yeast-based phenotypic screening with AI to characterize the mechanism of action of novel small molecules.
While high throughput genetic screens are widely used to rapidly quantify the effect of a genetic mutation on a given phenotype, their use is limited to mutations that affect cell growth.
BiocipherX’s Systematic Gene-to-Phenotype Array (SGPA) platform combines genetic mutant arrays of yeast with fluorescent reporters to determine the effect of a mutation on a broader range of cellular phenotypes by using fluorescence, rather than cell growth, as a readout.
Specialized screening assays such as high-content microscopy, expression profiling and mass spectroscopy can also evaluate the contributions of specific genes on a wide range of phenotypes, but they are time-consuming and costly, according to CEO Philipp Jaeger. “We’re doing this...