Methods of preparing compositions comprising chemicals capable of transcriptional modulation

A method of preparing a composition which comprises:

• (a) separately contacting a plurality of samples each of which contains a predefined number of eucaryotic cells with different chemicals to be tested, each cell comprising a DNA construct comprising:
• (i) a modulatable transcriptional regulatory sequence which regulates initiation of transcription of a gene-of-interest,
• (ii) a promoter, and
• (iii) a reporter gene that produces a detectable signal, coupled to, and under the control of, the promoter, under conditions wherein the chemicals if capable of acting as a transcriptional modulator of the gene-of-interest, causes a detectable signal to be produced by the reporter gene;
• (b) quantitatively determining the amount of the signal produced by each chemical in (a);
• (c) comparing the amount of signal determined in (b) for each chemical with the amount of signal produced and detected in the absence of any chemical being tested and/or with the amount of signal produced and detected upon contacting the sample in (a) with the different chemicals, with any difference between the amounts of signal determined in step;
• (b) and detected in step (c) identifying the test chemical which causes said difference as a chemical which causes a change in the amount of detectable signal produced by the reporter gene;
• and
• (d) admixing the test chemical identified in step (c) with a carrier, thereby preparing said composition.

A method of preparing a composition which comprises:

• (a) contacting a sample which contains a predefined number of eucaryotic cells with a chemical to be tested, each cell comprising a DNA construct comprising:
• (i) a modulatable transcriptional regulatory sequence which regulates initiation of transcription of a gene-of-interest,
• (ii) a promoter, and
• (iii) a reporter gene that produces a detectable product, coupled to, and under the control of, the promoter, under conditions wherein the chemical if capable of acting as a transcriptional modulator of the gene-of-interest, causes a detectable product to be produced by the reporter gene;
• (b) quantitatively determining the amount of the product produced in (a)(iii);
• (c) comparing the amount of product determined in (b) with the amount of product produced and detected in the absence of any chemical being tested or with the amount of product produced and detected upon contacting the sample in (a) with other chemicals, with any difference between the amounts of product determined in step (b) and detected in step (c) identifying the test chemical which causes said difference as a chemical which causes a change in the amount of detectable product produced by the reporter gene;
• and
• (d) admixing the test chemical identified in step (c) with a carrier, thereby preparing said composition.