Our article was the cover-featured, first-listed research paper in the January 15 issue of ChemBioChem.

The work was started by Tannia Lau during her PhD thesis in Scott Lokey’s lab. For her project, machine learning methods were explored for analyzing cytological profiling screen data from macrophages, collected in the CSC. This is a very hot topic for high content screening. So while Tannia had since graduated and moved to a career in industry at Eli Lilly & Co, we were excited to validate and investigate the hits from her screen, and get it over the finish line to publication. To do this, we employed the new wetlab capabilities of the revamped CSC. These follow-up studies benefitted from the versatility of the acoustic dispenser, image quality and intuitive quantification tools of the confocal imager, accuracy of the new bulk dispenser, and speed of the new plate washer. The two phases of the project were presented by Tannia and Beverley at the annual Society for Laboratory Automation Sciences. We continue to use these methods in our ongoing studies in natural product drug discovery with the HiFAN team, and welcome collaborators or customers to inquire about having your own samples run through image cytometry for immune-modulating compounds.

Tannia’s PhD research was funded in 2019-2020 by a prestigious NIH F31 Kirschstein-NRSA fellowship, building upon her prior work supported by UCSC’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development, a Navajo Scholarship, and Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). We are grateful to these programs for continuing to support work of excellent trainees like Tannia.