Image-Based High Content Screening: Automating the Quantification Process for DNA Damage-Induced Foci.

Visual inspection of cellular activities based on conventional fluorescence microscope is a fundamental tool to study the role of DNA damage response (DDR). In the context of drug discovery where the capture of thousands of images is required across parallel experiments, this presents a challenge to data collection and analysis. Manual scoring is laborious and often reliant on trained personnel to intuit biological meaning through visual reasoning. On the other hand, high content screening combines the automation of microscopy image acquisition and analysis in a single platform to quantify cellular events of interests. The data generated is rapid and accurate, lessening the bias of human interpretation. Herein, this chapter will describe an image-based high content screen approach and the data analysis of Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) DNA damage-induced foci.