Alithea Genomics Launches MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq for Ultra-High-Throughput Transcriptomic Screening
核心洞察
Alithea Genomics (搜索) announced the early access launch of MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索), enabling transcriptome-wide gene expression profiling directly from 1536-well plates at screening scale.
The kit addresses a key bottleneck in drug discovery by providing richer biological context for compound-induced responses, detecting over 12,000 genes at just 0.7 million reads per sample.
Internal validation demonstrated over 96% read assignment to individual samples and reproducible differential expression signatures across independently processed plates.
Alithea Genomics (搜索) today announced the early access launch of MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索), a new ultra-high-throughput transcriptomics kit designed to help drug discovery teams profile compound-induced biological responses at true screening scale. The launch addresses a growing challenge in pharmaceutical R&D: discovery teams can now screen large compound libraries with increasing speed and automation, but they often rely on narrow assay endpoints that reveal whether a compound has an effect without providing sufficient biological context into why that effect occurs.
"The bottleneck in drug discovery is no longer only the ability to screen more compounds. It is the ability to understand biological response at the same scale," said Frederik Decouttere, CEO of Alithea Genomics (搜索). "MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索) was developed to make transcriptomics compatible with the scale of modern screening, giving teams richer evidence earlier in the discovery process, helping to accelerate therapeutic programs, protecting downstream budgets by avoiding late-stage pivots."
Closing the Transcriptomics Gap in High-Throughput Screening
Transcriptomics can provide a deeper view of compound-induced biological responses, but until now it has often been too costly, complex, or low-throughput to deploy across large screening campaigns. MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索) is designed to close that gap by enabling transcriptome-wide gene expression profiling directly from 1536-well plates, giving researchers a practical way to generate standardized biological response data across compounds, concentrations, time points, and cellular models.
The new kit extends Alithea's MERCURIUS DRUG-seq platform to 1536-well workflows. Cell lysis and barcoded reverse transcription are performed directly in the 1536-well culture plate, followed by pooling all 1536 samples into a single tube for downstream library preparation. This miniaturized, pooled workflow is designed to reduce hands-on time, support automation, and limit batch effects while preserving the depth and biological resolution needed for transcriptomic screening.
Performance and Technical Specifications
Early performance data demonstrate high demultiplexing efficiency, consistent gene detection across 1536-well plates, and robust capture of compound-induced transcriptional responses. In internal validation studies, MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索) assigned more than 96% of reads to individual samples and detected more than 12,000 genes at only 0.7 million reads per sample. The technology also showed reproducible differential expression signatures across independently processed plates and resolved mechanism-specific toxicity responses across compounds.
The kit is designed for cell lines and primary cells in 1536-well assay plates, with input requirements of 400 to 1,000 mammalian cells per well. The workflow supports approximately 2.5 hours of hands-on library preparation time and does not require a 1536-well thermocycler, helping remove a practical bottleneck for laboratories working in highly miniaturized screening formats. MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索) is compatible with Illumina, Ultima Genomics, and AVITI sequencing instruments.
Applications Across the Discovery Pipeline
MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索) is intended for discovery teams working on large-scale compound profiling, mechanism of action discovery, toxicity assessment, benchmark dosing, compound prioritization, and the generation of structured perturbation datasets for AI-driven drug discovery. It also provides a complementary molecular readout for high-content imaging workflows, including Cell Painting.
"AI-driven discovery depends on the quality, scale, and structure of the biological data used to train and interpret models," said Decouttere. "With MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索), researchers can generate large transcriptomic datasets that connect chemical perturbation to biological response across screening-scale experiments."
Strategic Partnership with Revvity Expands Global Access
In a parallel development, Alithea Genomics (搜索) has entered into a strategic agreement with Revvity Inc. (搜索) to expand global access to its MERCURIUS DRUG-seq and MERCURIUS Total DRUG-seq platforms. The collaboration combines Alithea's scalable RNA sequencing technologies with Revvity's broad portfolio of drug discovery and screening solutions, providing researchers with enhanced capabilities to generate deeper biological insights from large-scale screening programs.
As pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies increasingly adopt multi-omics approaches to accelerate drug development, the partnership aims to address growing demand for high-throughput transcriptomic profiling that can be seamlessly incorporated into phenotypic screening, functional genomics, and AI-driven discovery workflows.
Riccardo Dainese, Chief Business Officer and Co-founder of Alithea Genomics (搜索), said the agreement significantly expands global access to the company's transcriptomics technologies while enabling researchers to combine scalable RNA sequencing with advanced phenotypic and functional genomics workflows. Craig Monell, Senior Vice President of Life Science Reagents at Revvity, noted that the addition of MERCURIUS DRUG-seq and MERCURIUS Total DRUG-seq provides researchers with a scalable approach to incorporating transcriptomic context into screening studies, helping them prioritize drug candidates, investigate mechanisms of action, and generate richer datasets for downstream analysis.
The MERCURIUS 1536 DRUG-seq (搜索) kit is available in a 1536-prep format through Alithea Genomics (搜索)' early access program. The company is inviting interested early access users to join a launch webinar on June 24 to learn more about the product.