The study was conducted by scientists from the German Center for the Protection of Laboratory Animals (Bf3R) at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Berlin, with participation from the University of Potsdam, Free University Berlin, the Institute for Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at Charité Berlin, Humboldt University and the Berlin Institute of Health. They were also supported by the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Berlin and the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Research of the Robert Koch Institute.

Phenotypic changes in the morphology and internal organization of cells can indicate disturbances in cell function. This can be visualized in color using cell painting. In cell painting, fluorescent dye signals are recorded microscopically and automatically analyzed in a high-throughput process. This makes it possible to determine whether and how cells or cell components are altered by different substances. This method has now been extended to at least seven stains that mark nine different subcellular compartments and organelles, including the plasma membrane, the actin cytoskeleton, cytoplasmic RNA, nucleoli, lysosomes, nuclear DNA, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria and Golgi apparatus.

According to the authors, future perspectives of the method include the use for phenotypic screening of larger substance libraries of toxicological and pharmaceutical relevance. On the other hand, the data collected in this way also provides further mechanistic findings for consideration in the so-called Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) concept. The method can also be used, for example, to predict endocrine active substances (EAS) or specific target organ toxicities (STOT) and is intended to avoid unnecessary animal testing.

The scientists led by report on their findings in the journal Nature Communications:
von Coburg, E., Wedler, M., Muino, J.M. et al. (2025). Cell Painting PLUS: expanding the multiplexing capacity of Cell Painting-based phenotypic profiling using iterative staining-elution cycles. Nat Commun 16, 3857. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58765-8

Source and further information:
https://www.bfr.bund.de/mitteilung/zellen-im-farbkleid-zeigen-wirkung/