University of Zurich (UZH) scientists say they have developed a technique that makes it possible to quickly test various drugs at the cellular level. The method sheds light on the effects of anticancer drugs and the defense mechanisms of cancer cells, according to the researchers. The team uses cancer cell cultures to investigate the effects of PARP inhibitors, which make it difficult for these cells to replicate their DNA. They published their study (“ Analysis of PARP inhibitor toxicity by multidimensional fluorescence microscopy reveals mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance ”) in Nature Communications . “Exploiting the full potential of anticancer drugs necessitates a detailed understanding of their cytotoxic effects. While standard omics approaches are limited to cell population averages, emerging single cell techniques currently lack throughput and are not applicable for compound screens. Here, we employed a versatile and sensitive high-content microscopy-based approach to overcome these limitations and ...