Cell culture automation with the CellXpress.ai cell culture system

Finding efficient anti-cancer drugs and drug combinations is critical for therapy success. Accordingly, there is a critical need to develop methods for efficient drug efficacy testing to discover new viable therapeutic targets. Being highly representative of the structure and behavior of tumors, 3D cancer cell models, such as tumoroids, are highly valuable tools for cancer research and drug development. However, manual 3D cell culture workflows are time-consuming, error-prone, and inconsistent, making their adoption for high-throughput drug screening cumbersome. To expedite and standardize the spheroid assay, Molecular Devices^® developed 3D cell culture automation methods using the CellXpress.ai™ Automated Cell Culture System to provide automated plating, passaging, media exchange, organoid monitoring in response to compound treatment, and endpoint assays. In this application note, Molecular Devices presents a study in which the automation of a colorectal cell culture workflow was described, where the culture and imaging of colorectal cancer 3D spheroids formed from HCT116 cell lines in U-shape low attachment plates were automated.