OUR SERVICES AND CAPABILITIES
Beantown Biotech is a Boston's local Contract Research Organization (CRO) that provides a comprehensive set of services designed to accelerate the discovery and development of new drugs. Our expertise in discovery biology includes assay development and screening utilizing a wide variety of biophysical, biochemical and cell-based assays. Our team of highly experienced scientists will work closely with you to ensure optimal outcome for your research projects.
Digital PCR (dPCR)
Digital PCR (dPCR) is a highly sensitive technique for precise DNA and RNA quantification, achieved by partitioning samples into thousands of individual reactions and directly counting target molecules. Unlike traditional PCR, dPCR delivers absolute quantification without standard curves, enabling superior accuracy and reproducibility. It is widely used for rare mutation detection, liquid biopsy, copy number variation (CNV), and gene expression analysis. dPCR is also essential in cell and gene therapy for vector titration, copy number, and biodistribution, as well as in gene editing workflows to assess on- and off-target effects. dPCR supports confident decision-making in low-abundance and high-precision applications.
DiscoverX
Eurofins DiscoverX assays are a suite of cell-based and biochemical platforms designed to measure target engagement, pathway activity, and functional responses in drug discovery. Key technologies include HitHunter®, PathHunter®, and KINOMEscan®, supporting applications such as receptor signaling, protein–protein interactions, and kinase profiling. These assays provide high sensitivity, scalability, and reproducibility, enabling efficient screening, mechanism-of-action studies, and lead optimization across diverse therapeutic areas.
Flow Cytometry
Various aspects of cells and cellular processes can be analyzed and characterized with Flow Cytometry. Analysis can include the identification of cell surface markers and intracellular proteins associated with disease states or therapeutic targets. It enables rapid analysis of cellular responses to compounds, including changes in viability, proliferation, apoptosis, and protein expression. Researchers can analyze drug-induced changes in cell cycle progression, cell signaling pathways, immune cell function, and biomarker expression to elucidate the mechanism of action and optimize drug dosing regimens. Flow cytometry can also enable the assessment of compound toxicity by monitoring cellular responses such as apoptosis, necrosis, DNA damage, and mitochondrial dysfunction.
Nano-Glo HiBiT lytic detection
HiBiT is a protein-tagging and detection method that relates abundance of target directly to luminescent signal. When detection reagent is added to live cells, he high-affinity interaction between LgBiT Protein and HiBiT tag reconstitutes the luminescent NanoBiT® enzyme. This results in a highly quantitative assay with fewer processing steps compared to standard antibody-based detection methods.
CellTiter-Glo
The CellTiter-Glo® Luminescent Cell Viability Assay is a homogeneous method of determining the number of viable cells in culture based on quantitation of the ATP present (an indicator of metabolically active cells). The CellTiter-Glo® Assay is designed for use in multiwell formats, making it ideal for automated high-throughput screening (HTS), cell proliferation and cytotoxicity assays.
AlphaLISA
Alpha technology is a bead-based method of detection that is becoming more common in drug discovery. The biggest appeal is that Alpha assays are homogenous and do not require any wash steps which can make a perfect function assay. Alpha technology uses two different beads, a Donor and an Acceptor. Once the beads are close in proximity (about 200 nm) they produce a luminescent/fluorescent signal. This ultimately causes light to be released and detected, creating a quantitative signal that is proportionally related to the amount of analyte in a sample.
NanoBRET target engagement
NanoBRET™ technology offers a sensitive, specific method to measure the interaction of small-molecule drugs with their target protein in live cells. With the NanoBRET™ Target Engagement Assay, you can quantitate compound affinity (how tightly it binds to a protein) target protein occupancy (how much compound binds to a protein) and assess how long a compound binds to the target protein (its residence time) under physiological conditions in live cells.
HTRF
Homogeneous Time-Resolved Fluorescence (HTRF) is a sensitive, mix-and-read assay technology used to detect biomolecular interactions and quantify targets such as proteins, peptides, and small molecules. Based on FRET and time-resolved fluorescence, HTRF delivers high signal-to-noise with low background and no wash steps. It is widely used in drug discovery for binding assays, enzyme activity, and cell-based signaling studies, offering robust, scalable performance for screening and routine lead optimization assays.
Jess Automated Western
Protein Simple’s Jess Automated Western machinery allows us to profile up to 24 samples at once via Western Blot in as few as 3 hours. This allows for high-throughput antibody detection assays that bypass the several-hour/overnight incubations and manual washing steps that slow the traditional Western Blot protocol down considerably.
Meso Scale Discovery Immunoassay (MSD)
Immunoassays are a staple in the field of drug discovery. MSD makes use of electrochemiluminescence via SULFO-TAG technology to greatly improve on the sensitivity of traditional staple immunoassays. This technology will allow you to confidently quantify ultra-low levels of analyte in a sample where other methods fail to do so. Utilize the hundreds of commercially available kits or for single or multiplex biomarker analysis. Beantown Biotech can also develop custom MSD assays when there is not an available off-the-shelf kit.
Incucyte S3 (Sartorius)
​The Incucyte S3 offers a variety of useful applications in the way of cell/tissue imaging. Set up in a working incubator, this instrument allows you to utilize live cells for your experimentation - from simple cell counting to phagocytosis assays and lentiviral transduction analyses. The Incucyte also provides traditional, fixed cell/tissue staining and imaging capabilities.
Cyquant ® Cell Proliferation Assay
An alternative to CTG, Cyquant serves as a viability assay in its own manner. Rather than producing luminescence through ATP presence and relating this signal to number of living cells, Cyquant ® is an intercalating dye that permeates intact cell membranes and produces a fluorescent signal that can be read on one of our plate readers.
Real-Time PCR
Real-Time PCR, also referred to as Quantitative PCR (or qPCR) is a precise, efficient and rapid method for nucleic acid detection in various biological samples. In real-time PCR, the accumulation of amplification product is measured as the reaction progresses, in real time, with product quantification after each cycle. real-time PCR allows you to determine the initial number of copies of template DNA (the amplification target sequence) with accuracy and high sensitivity over a wide dynamic range.
High Content Imaging
​High Content Imaging (HCI) involves measuring changes in cell phenotype by labeling proteins with fluorescent tags. It is possible to measure several different cell components in parallel by using fluorescent tags with different absorption and emission wavelengths. HCI is able to detect changes at a subcellular level (e.g., cytoplasm vs. mucleus vs. other organelles). Beantown Biotech utilizes the GE InCell Analyzer 6500 HS and the PerkinElmer Operetta for High Content Imaging.