5-Ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine as a molecular probe of cell proliferation for high-content siRNA screening assay by “click” chemistry

Abstract

Labelling and identification of proliferating cells is important for the study of physiological or pathological processes in high-content screening (HCS) assays. Here we describe ethynyl deoxyuridine (EdU) as a biomarker for the assessment of cell proliferation and clearly demonstrate the feasibility of the EdU-labelling method for use in HCS assays. EdU detection is highly robust, reproducible, technically simple, and well suited for automated segmentation, which provides an excellent alternative for setting up multiplexed HCS assays of siRNA, miRNA and small-molecule libraries.