FACTORIAL™ Screening Services

Attagene has developed two distinct cell-based assays for evaluation of toxicity and mode of action of chemical compounds and drug candidates.

Both assays have been implemented in a high-throughput GLP facility and are a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ToxCast program that seeks to identify predictive bioactivity signatures of environmental toxicants.

To date, we have evaluated over 3,500 ToxCast™ compounds, among them approved and failed drugs, endocrine disruptors, environmental and industrial chemicals, nanomaterials, etc.

The FACTORIAL™ assays are available to customers through our FACTORIAL™ screening services.(Order)


Compound Screening in FACTORIAL™ Assays

Evaluating compounds in a FACTORIAL™ assay is a multi-step procedure. We assist our customers in study design, data analysis and interpretation.

  • Study design.
    Selecting a FACTORIAL™ assay and the screening conditions, i.e., cell type, concentrations of compounds, timetable, number of replicates, etc.

  • Execution.
    Running the FACTORIAL™ assay, i.e., transfecting cells with a FACTORIAL system and exposing them to compounds.

  • Detection
    Isolation and processing of RNA from the exposed cells; Obtaining raw data of the FACTORIAL™ assay.

  • Data analysis and formatting.
    Quality control and processing of the raw data. Calculating induction profiles (the compound’s signature). Statistical analyses. Formatting data in Excel and as a radial graph (an ATTAGRAPH™).

  • Data mining.
    Classifying the evaluated compounds by comparing their signatures with signatures of over 2,000 reference compounds stored in Attagene’s database.


Example 1: Bisphenol-A Profile by cis-Factorial-1.



Example 2: Bisphenol-A Profile by trans-Factorial.