INDIGO Blog

View our most recent posts to learn more about various types of receptors, cell-based assays, and their use in drug discovery and environmental testing applications. 

 

Mechanistic Toxicology Assays: How Cell-based Tools Reveal Mode of Action Insights

Understanding the mechanism of toxicity is essential across the chemical and biomedical sciences. Whether in drug discovery, safety assessment, or environmental evaluation, mechanistic insight provides the foundation for interpreting biological effects in a meaningful way. By defining how a chemical perturbs specific pathways, researchers can identify structure-activity relationships, compare responses across compound classes, and design…

Transrepression Assays in Drug Discovery and Mechanistic Pharmacology

Transrepression assays are specialized cell-based systems designed to measure functional suppression of gene expression mediated by nuclear receptors and transcription factors. While traditional reporter assays quantify transcriptional activation, transrepression assays are used to evaluate how a receptor or pathway reduces transcription factor-driven gene expression. These assays are especially relevant in autoimmune diseases, inflammation research, immunology,…

Using Bioassays to Assess Toxicity in Complex Environmental Samples

Environmental monitoring has long relied on chemical analysis to identify contaminants and assess risk. That remains essential, but chemical data alone does not always show how real-world samples behave biologically. Surface water, groundwater, wastewater, and sediments often contain complex mixtures of known and unknown substances, making it difficult to determine which components are driving toxicological…

Understanding GPR39: Biology, Function, and a Tool for Drug Discovery

GPR39 is an emerging class A G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that has gained increasing attention in drug discovery because of its broad physiological relevance and therapeutic potential. Often described as a zinc-responsive receptor, GPR39 is expressed in a range of tissues, including the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, adipose tissue, and select areas of the central nervous…

Off-Target Screening and Why It Matters in Discovery Programs

Drug discovery is often framed as a linear process: identify a disease-relevant target, screen molecules that modulate it, and move the best candidate toward the clinic. In practice, however, biology is deeply complex. Drug candidates rarely interact with only one protein or pathway. Instead, many compounds engage additional biological targets, sometimes subtly and with meaningful…