With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting millions around the globe, researchers are racing to develop a vaccine or drug treatment.
In an effort to better understand the cellular responses to COVID-19, the digital biology company Recursion has publicly released the world’s largest imaging dataset portraying therapeutic compound effects from over 1,600 approved and referenced molecules on SARS-CoV-2-infected human cells. The images and data were acquired using the ImageXpress Micro Confocal High-Content Imaging System from Molecular Devices.
Named RxRx19, the dataset from Recursion is an important contribution to a growing body of scientific data in the fight against COVID-19. The images and datasets are available and free online, giving researchers open access to both the images and the corresponding deep learning embeddings to analyse or apply to their own experimentation hypothesis.
“We commend Recursion for its leadership around RxRx19, empowering researchers with the statistically relevant data to advance our understanding of COVID-19 cellular responses and drug discovery. It is particularly valuable during this unprecedented time when many labs are operating at reduced capacity or are shutdown altogether due to shelter-in-place requirements,” said Susan Murphy, President of Molecular Devices. “This is a powerful example of how our innovative, high-content imaging technology enables customers to provide data to insights quickly and reliably to help explore treatments for COVID-19.”
Image credit: Markus Spiske
