Scientists use cell death, whether by apoptosis or necrosis, to evaluate the toxicity or effectiveness of substances of interest, including potential therapeutic agents. For example, researchers will measure cell death to determine a drug’s anticancer effectiveness. Scientists commonly use caspase assays to evaluate apoptosis, evaluating caspase activation—a hallmark of apoptosis initiation—with fluorescent dyes. Researchers often perform multiplex caspase assays for the sake of time, efficiency, and throughput. However, setting up experiments with many varying parameters can be complicated.
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