WATCHING WORMS: Adult Ancylostoma caninum hookworms writhing in xCELLigence E-plate wells. Circular electrodes covering the bases of the wells measure changes in electrical impedance as the worms move in response to different drugs.COURTESY OF MICHAEL SMOUT
Biochemical drug screens were the norm a decade or so ago, but they didn’t always lead to cures. Targets that looked good in the test tube often failed in animals or people, either because of toxicity or because the drugs were processed differently in the body than they were in a pure chemical interaction. Modern scientists now look to cell-based assays as a drug-development tool that ups the chances of picking a winner.
Although studying medicines in cells is still a far cry from testing in an intact organism, “it’s the first level in biology where you actually have a whole working system,” says R. Terry Dunlay, CEO of IntelliCyt Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With cell culture, researchers can get as close as possible ...
