Clonogenic assay

A clonogenic assay is a cell biology technique for studying the effectiveness of specific agents on the survival and proliferation of cells. It is frequently used in cancer research laboratories to determine the effect of drugs or radiation on proliferating tumor cells as well as for titration of Cell-killing Particles (CKPs) in virus stocks. It was first developed by T.T. Puck and Philip I. Marcus at the University of Colorado in 1955. A clonogenic assay is a cell biology technique for studying the effectiveness of specific agents on the survival and proliferation of cells. It is frequently used in cancer research laboratories to determine the effect of drugs or radiation on proliferating tumor cells as well as for titration of Cell-killing Particles (CKPs) in virus stocks. It was first developed by T.T. Puck and Philip I. Marcus at the University of Colorado in 1955. Although this technique can provide accurate results, the assay is time-consuming to set up and analyze and can only provide data on tumor cells that can grow in culture. The word 'clonogenic' refers to the fact that these cells are clones of one another.