Unraveling the mysteries of biology often involves identifying its subtleties: what makes our cells tick?
The nature of cells is that they are ever changing. They live. They adapt to their environment. But for decades, scientists have lacked a truly integrated tool for understanding how cell dynamics unfold across multiple biological layers simultaneously, particularly in areas like cancer research.
Our AVITI24™ 5D multiomics system and Teton™ assay change this current paradigm.
A new study from Element scientists
A recent pre-print published by our scientists highlights the power of this system, and its ability to actually capture the effervescent complexity of human cells.
The basis for the paper was a straightforward question: how can we demonstrate the capabilities of our technology in a way that is real and biologically relevant?
To do so, we chose non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) drug resistance, a complex problem that typically requires years of painstaking research. An all too common occurrence with NSCLC is that it develops resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), limiting the long-term success of these targeted therapies.
The conventional approach to studying this cancer drug resistance involves a tedious, fragmented process. Researchers typically analyze protein or RNA separately, each requiring multiple days of preparation before getting results. Then they repeat this process over and over for different targets, slowly building a picture of what's happening inside cells. It's methodical, but painfully slow.
Accelerating time to insights: From months to weeks
Our Teton assay on the AVITI24 system drastically accelerates this timeline. Instead of measuring RNA, protein, and cellular morphology separately over weeks or months, we capture all three simultaneously in individual cells—going directly from sample to data in a single 24-hour run.
"With AVITI24 and Teton, we were able to cast a really wide net and look broadly at everything that could be impacted within a cell," explained Vivian Dien, Element’s Associate Director and lead scientist on the project. "We can differentiate between the response at a bulk population level, which people typically do, and parse it out to an individual cell level to understand why some cells are responsive while others aren't."
The speed difference here is staggering. Instead of spending years on tedious sample preparation and running separate assays for different pathways and drug combinations, researchers can focus more time on analyzing data and building new hypotheses.
For example, when we identified CDK4/6 as a potential escape route for resistant cells and decided to test combination therapy with palbociclib, the turnaround was incredibly fast.
"From the initial idea to seeing results, it took only about three weeks," Vivian noted. “Our study shows that with this system, what would have previously taken an entire lab’s worth of equipment over many months or even years, can now be done on a single machine in under a single month. It's much more accessible for everyone."
This acceleration is not just about convenience—it's about fundamentally changing how drug research happens. The ability to simultaneously measure hundreds of proteins alongside RNA expression and morphological changes in the same cells opens up entirely new experimental possibilities that simply weren't feasible before.
At Element, we believe modern science deserves modern solutions. Solutions that meet researchers at their pace and resource capacity. As demonstrated in this paper, AVITI24 is that solution. A system working hand in hand with scientists to achieve high quality results faster than ever before.
Interested in learning more? Read the full paper.