Abstract

Organoids are stem cell derived 3D models that can be efficiently established from cancer and normal tissues. Organoid from normal tissues and human tumors have enabled to study the establishment of tissue organization and its dependence on genetic and environmental factors. Image-based profiling is a microscopy-based methodology to systematically measure phenotypes of in vitro models. When combined with chemical or genetic perturbations, image-based profiling can be a powerful approach to gain systematic insights into biological processes, for instance in drug discovery and functional genomics. Here, we will present experimental data and discuss how image-based assays can be used to screen large libraries of small molecules in organoids to identify potential drug candidates, to analyze a drug’s mode of action, or to classify drug-gene interactions by cell-morphology.