# Phenotypic screening: high throughput assay development

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2020 · $588,371

## Abstract

Core C: Phenotypic screening: high throughput assay development 
ABSTRACT 
There is an urgent need to improve treatment options for patients suffering from bipolar disorder (BP) and 
schizophrenia (SZ). The development of patient specific iPSC based models to study the pathology and 
cellular and molecular bases of BP and SZ offers an unprecedented opportunity to identify improved 
treatments based on biology rather than symptoms, and help stratify patients according to pathological 
processes. While the heritability is high for BP and SZ, these disorders are genetically complex and will require 
the examination of multiple cell types from many patients to identify and validate phenotypes in cell-based 
disease models. Considering the large number of samples required to power the proposed studies, 
miniaturized, higher throughput assays will be essential. The function of Scientific Core C is to develop robust 
and reliable assays in miniaturized and higher throughput formats to support the three Research Projects. We 
will utilize expertise and instrumentation, including high content imaging, rapid kinetic analyses, and higher 
throughput electrophysiology available at the Prebys Center, a state of the art drug screening facility, which 
also houses a stem cell lab dedicated to establishing the technology platforms and reproducibility necessary to 
utilize iPSC derived cell types for phenotypic screening and drug testing. The proposed development of 
procedures to interrogate iPSC derived neural cell types in microtiter-well formats will be advantageous for 
both phenotype validation and discovery, as relatively small numbers of cells and reagents are required, 
making feasible testing of larger numbers of replicate samples and more variables, including timing and dose 
response to therapeutic agents, signaling pathway modulators, and stress inducers. In the long term, 
development of these assays will provide a foundation for future efforts aimed at target identification and drug 
discovery. Importantly, these assays will also form the bases of a standardized bank of tests against which 
broader panels of BP and SZ patient iPSCs, and iPSC from patients with other neuropsychiatric diseases can 
be screened.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9983163
- **Project number:** 5U19MH106434-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Anne G Bang
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $588,371
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9983163

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9983163, Phenotypic screening: high throughput assay development (5U19MH106434-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9983163. Licensed CC0.

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