Currently, public institutions and private pharmaceutical companies in the world have a huge number of compound libraries for the purpose of drug discovery research. High-throughput screening technology is required to select molecules with specific activity from these compounds. We have developed quantitative and robust screening methods to detect myogenesis with the aim of developing new drugs that are effective against muscle atrophy (1, 2). One of our proprietary technologies is a split-luciferase reconstitution method using protein splicing. We applied this method to monitor a myocyte fusion event. in comparison to the use of fusion index of fluorescence-based methods, We found that this method is faster for screening and can also screen for fluorescent library compounds. This method is expected to be useful for basic myogenic studies, tissue engineering, and drug discovery. In addition to the cell fusion, we are also conducting research to find new active molecules that control cells from different compound libraries (3).

1. Q. Li, H. Yoshimura, M. Komiya, K. Tajiri, M. Uesugi, Y. Hata, T. Ozawa, Analyst. 143, 3472–3480 (2018).
2. M. Kodaka, et al., Experimental Cell Research. 336, 171–181 (2015).
3. G. Ado, N. Noda, H. T. Vu, A. D. Mahapatra, K. P. Arista, H. Yoshimura, D. M. Packwood, F. Ishidate, S. Sato, T. Ozawa and M. Uesugi, Chem. Sci., 13, 5760-5766 (2022).