The SemaCyte® platform enables scalable, high-fidelity antibody screening by pooling multiple adherent cell models within a single microwell. Optically barcoded microcarriers support dye-free multiplexing for binding and functional assays using high-content imaging. This imaging-based workflow eliminates reliance on flow cytometry, offering a more robust and accessible alternative. Application examples demonstrate 3-plex specificity and orthologue screens with strong assay performance (Z′ > 0.6) using 50-100 cells per model. By miniaturising workflows and enabling frozen, assay-ready cell banks, SemaCytes reduce cost, variability, and resource use—streamlining early antibody discovery.

Cell painting is evolving beyond single-line assays toward screening diverse and engineered cell models for deeper phenotypic insight. SemaCyte® microcarriers enable barcode-based multiplexing of multiple adherent cell types within a single well, reducing plate usage, imaging time, and variability. Each microcarrier carries ~5 adherent cells in a uniform geometry, supporting assay consistency and enabling workflow miniaturisation. The approach is fully compatible with standard reagents, imaging platforms, and software such as Harmony® and CellProfiler. Here, we demonstrate accurate 4-plex profiling (HeLa, U2OS, HEK293, A549) with robust PCA clustering from just 50-100 cells per model.

The SemaCyte® Multiplex platform transforms cell panel screening by enabling simultaneous analysis of multiple cell models within a single well. Each SemaCyte® microcarrier is encoded with optical barcodes, facilitating the pooling and identification of distinct cell models during imaging assays. This application note highlights a 4-plex cancer cell screen, demonstrating 4x faster data generation with 4x fewer reagents and plasticware. The results reveal biologically relevant insights into Nutlin-3A’s effect on p53 activation, significantly speeding up compound profiling and biomarker identification while reducing assay costs and time.

SemaCyte® microcarriers enhance drug discovery workflows by enabling the cryopreservation of large batches of assay-ready adherent cells, significantly reducing preparation time. In this application, A549 cells transfected with a p53:MDM2 NanoBRET pair were cryopreserved and recovered without loss of viability or transfection efficiency. The SemaCyte® technology accelerated the assays by up to 8-fold, eliminating the need for a 2-3 day cell preparation step, offering more flexible and efficient screening campaigns.

In this study, we employ a 4-plex cell panel as a proof of concept. Our results demonstrate that the SemaCyte® Multiplex platform establishes meaningful and biologically plausible associations between Nutlin-3a cytotoxicity and p53 induction. Specifically, we investigate A549, PC3, T98G, and HepG2 cells, which were pooled and exposed to serial dilutions of Nutlin-3a.

SemaCyte® microcarriers enables cryopreservation of fully adherent A549 cells in standard cryovials. Batch production ensures uniformity across longitudinal studies.

SemaCyte Multiplex platform to optically barcode cell microcarriers to enable true high-order cell multiplexing for image-based assays. We present a proof-of-concept 4-plex oncology cell panel screen for p53 stabilisation.

SemaCytes increase the workflow flexinility during drug screening assays with live or fixed cell imaging.

Assay-ready A549 seeding shuttles for multi-day drug sensitivity assays against Nutlin-3A and Trametinib

Multicentre evaluation of adherent cells frozen on SemaCytes for rapid assays