PRECOS offers medium throughput multi-compound screening in over 100 human, mouse and rat cell lines, including unique human colorectal, gastric, pancreatic and oesophageal cell lines.

PRECOS in vitro research and development assays provide highly reproducible results, rapid data production and multiple drug screening and can be offered as a stand-alone activity, or in support of a wider programme.

Cell Proliferation and Viability Assays

The following industry standard assays are available:

• Tetrazolium uptake: a colorimetric method for determining the number of viable cells in proliferation, cytotoxicity or chemosensitivity assays.
• Lactase dehydrogenase (LDH): a widely accepted standard for the assessment of cell membrane integrity.
• Tritiated (3H) thymidine: Incorporation into cellular DNA is one of the most robust and sensitive measures of cell number available.

Apoptosis Assays
The ability to detect apoptosis is critical in many experimental scenarios. PRECOS can evaluate the onset of apoptosis using two industry standard markers.

• Mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT):
  providing an early indication of cellular apoptosis.
• Caspase 3 enzyme induction: triggered in response to pro-apoptotic signals.

Radioligand Binding Assays
Saturation and competitive binding analysis are useful tools in the analysis of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and their ligand interactions for receptor model selection, ligand screening and target selection.

• Saturation analysis: Using appropriate cold and hot ligands, receptor affinity (KD) and density (BMAX) can be determined in both cell membrane and whole cell systems.
• Competition analysis: Using an appropriate receptor source and competing radioligand, the equilibrium dissociation constant (KI) indicating ligand affinity can be determined.

Diagnostic/Biomarker Detection
Based on the Enzyme-linked Immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), PRECOS can provide high sensitivity (nano-and pico-molar level) analysis of serum, media and cell extracts for a comprehensive range of biological targets/markers.