INDIGO Biosciences Introduces Metabolism-Dependent Safety Screening Services for Early, Human-Relevant Risk Assessment

State College, PA (April 10th, 2026) – INDIGO Biosciences, a provider of cell-based reporter assay solutions, is expanding its service portfolio with Metabolism-Dependent Safety Screening, an approach designed to help researchers evaluate whether metabolic transformation changes a compound’s biological activity or safety profile.

While drug candidates and chemicals are often assessed based on parent compound activity, metabolites can contribute meaningfully to biological response and safety risk. In some cases, metabolites may be more potent or biologically distinct from the parent molecule, creating important questions for discovery and translational safety programs.

INDIGO’s Metabolism-Dependent Safety Screening approach pairs metabolically competent, human-derived upcyte® hepatocytes with INDIGO’s proven, functional reporter assays to generate data on metabolite-driven effects. This allows research teams to investigate whether metabolism is altering a compound’s biological behavior and to better understand potential liabilities earlier in development. INDIGO recently highlighted a use case for this approach at the 2026 Society of Toxicology conference. The poster presentation demonstrated how metabolically competent human hepatocyte co-cultures can alter assay readouts and provide additional insight into metabolism-dependent biological activity.

“Understanding whether metabolism changes the biological activity can provide a more informative view of compound behavior than conventional in vitro formats that lack metabolic competence.” said INDIGO Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Jack Vanden Heuvel. “This gives researchers a practical way to investigate metabolism-dependent effects in a whole-cell context and support faster, better-informed decision-making for prioritization and broader safety decision-making.”

Metabolism-dependent safety screening studies can be tailored to compound-specific questions, known metabolites, suspected bioactivation pathways, or broader metabolism-associated safety concerns. Depending on program needs, these services may also be aligned with endocrine, hepatotoxicity, off-target, or drug-drug interaction-related assessments.