This unit supplies biochemical and cell-based screenings aimed to assess the biological activity and toxicity profile of small molecules and/or biologics. 
The custom cell-based assays and the high-throughput screening (HTS) platforms allow to rapidly characterize the test compound in terms of mechanism of action, cytotoxicity, and other properties.

Experimental Activities

• Cell culture (maintenance and storage, tests for pathogens and toxins identifications)
• Isolation of new primary cell lines
• Cytotoxicity and proliferation assays
• Pathways modulation analysis using different methods
• ELISA, Western blot, Immunofluorescence assays
• FACS
• Chemotaxis, migration and angiogenesis
• Phenotypic Screening and Live Cell Imaging (Operetta High-Content Imaging System)
• Evaluation of ligand-receptor affinity by SPR (Biacore T200)

On the basis of the experimental requirements it is possible to choose between more than 100 cellular models, including:

• stabilized cell lines
• primary cells from different tumour types
• engineered cell lines expressing  GFP or Luciferase reporter genes

ADME in vitro evaluation