Screening Unit
The Turku Screening Unit is affiliated with four laboratories from across the bioscience campus in Turku, to provide services spanning from virtual screening, structure determination and medicinal chemistry through protein, cell and organoid screens to small animal model screens.
The Neuronal Signalling Laboratory at Turku Bioscience focuses on development and application of optical methods to monitor and perturb signalling pathways in cell and tissue models of disease, and to analyse cell and tissue.
The High Content Screening Laboratory at the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Turku combines advanced 3D organotypic culture models for oncology with tailored high-content analysis solutions to extract biologically relevant parameters indicative of tumour progression and invasion.
The MedChem.fi laboratory at the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Turku is headed by Professor Olli Pentikäinen and provides expertise in virtual screening and optimisation of molecules used in both screens and in target validation methods.
The Structural Bioinformatics Laboratory at Åbo Akademi University offers expertise in protein-ligand interactions and computational methods for structural bioinformatics to solve complex biological problems in protein structure, function, evolution and molecular interactions.
Collaborations
The core collaborates with:
- FFGC for the use of Thermo QuantStudio instrumentation for Differential Scanning Fluorimetry and Fragment-based screens
- Mathematicians for deeper analysis of spatiotemporal parameters and of multiplexed signalling assays from high-throughput imaging datasets (see Robinson and Courtney, 2018)
Research and Development
The core facility is active in establishing both previously reported methods and developing novel methods for the benefit of facility users. For example, we have:
- developed multiple high-sensitivity protein-protein interaction inhibitor screening methods applicable to proteins in cell-free conditions and in intact cells, allowing screening of protein pairs that are difficult generate, purify or use from recombinant systems
- developed a novel design approach for imposing optical regulation on short peptide inhibitors
Currently we work on the generation of new optical actuators (cellular optogenetics) and reporters and aim to find more efficient ways to implement them for use on biological material analysed by imagers and other measurement devices.
Recent Publications from Users of the Screening Core
Conway JRW, Joshi O, Kaivola J, Follain G, Gounis M, Kühl D, Ivaska J. Dynamic regulation of integrin β1 phosphorylation supports invasion of breast cancer cells. Nat Cell Biol. 2025 Jun;27(6):1021-1034. doi: 10.1038/s41556-025-01663-4. Epub 2025 May 26. PMID: 40419795; PMCID: PMC12173946.
Cutrone L, Djupenström H, Peltonen J, Martinez Klimova E, Corso S, Giordano S, Sistonen L, Gramolelli S. Heat shock factor 2 regulates oncogenic gamma-herpesvirus gene expression by remodeling the chromatin at the ORF50 and BZLF1 promoter. PLoS Pathog. 2025 Apr 17;21(4):e1013108. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013108. PMID: 40245053; PMCID: PMC12047821.
Momeny M, Tienhaara M, Sharma M, Chakroborty D, Varjus R, Takala I, Merisaari J, Padzik A, Vogt A, Paatero I, Elenius K, Laajala TD, Kurppa KJ, Westermarck J. DUSP6 inhibition overcomes neuregulin/HER3-driven therapy tolerance in HER2+ breast cancer. EMBO Mol Med. 2024 Jul;16(7):1603-1629. doi: 10.1038/s44321-024-00088-0. Epub 2024 Jun 17. PMID: 38886591; PMCID: PMC11251193.
Ali AE, Li LL, Courtney MJ, Pentikäinen OT, Postila PA. Atomistic simulations reveal impacts of missense mutations on the structure and function of SynGAP1. Brief Bioinform. 2024 Sep 23;25(6):bbae458. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbae458. PMID: 39311700; PMCID: PMC114182
News
DDCB symposium on May 4th 2023
May 4, 2023
The Turku Screening Unit is now a partner site of EU-OPENSCREEN
October 14, 2022