Cell detection
AssigneeMolecular Devices, LLC
InventorsJulian Francis Burke, Kerensa Klottrup, Alasdair Macmillan Robertson
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Abstract
In one aspect the present invention provides a method of identifying a cell or cell colony which produces a polypeptide of interest, the method comprising exposing one or more cells to a marker compound which associates with a reference polypeptide, wherein production of the polypeptide of interest by the cells is linked to production of the reference polypeptide, and detecting association of the marker compound with the one or more cells, thereby identifying a cell or cell colony which produces the polypeptide of interest.
Claims26
A method of identifying a cell or cell colony which produces a polypeptide of interest, the method comprising:
- a) exposing one or more cells in a same medium to tetrahydrofolate and a marker compound comprising methotrexate which associates with a reference polypeptide comprising dihydrofolate reductase, wherein production of the polypeptide of interest by the one or more cells is linked to production of the reference polypeptide;
- and
- b) detecting association of the marker compound with the one or more cells, thereby identifying a cell or cell colony which produces the polypeptide of interest,
- wherein a gene encoding the reference polypeptide is amplified in the identified cell or cell colony, and
- wherein detecting association of the marker compound comprises (i) obtaining an image of the one or more cells and (ii) analysing the image to identify association of the marker compound with the identified cell or cell colony.
A method of selecting a cell or cell colony which produces a polypeptide of interest from a plurality of cells, comprising detecting a cell or cell colony which produces the polypeptide of interest by a method according to any preceding claim, and selecting the cell or cell colony by picking the detected cell or cell colony.
A method of identifying a cell or cell colony which produces an amplifiable marker polypeptide comprising dihydrofolate reductase, the method comprising:
- (a) exposing one or more cells in a same medium to tetrahydrofolate and a marker compound comprising methotrexate which associates with the amplifiable marker polypeptide, the amplifiable marker polypeptide comprising a product of a gene which can be amplified in the one or more cells in the presence of the marker compound;
- and
- (b) detecting association of the marker compound with the one or more cells, thereby identifying a cell or cell colony which produces the amplifiable marker polypeptide,
- wherein detecting association of the marker compound comprises (i) obtaining an image of the one or more cells and (ii) analyzing the image to identify association of the marker compound with the identified cell or cell colony.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.