BME1450H Bioengineering Science Term Paper 1 Cytotoxic Cell Assay-Statistical Model for Concentration-Dependent Efficacy

Abstract—Cytotoxic cell assays are performed to asses the toxicity of various compounds or unicellular organisms on target cells. While there is a vast of study conducted to develop new assays, incorporating new labeling and detection techniques, this paper rather focuses on a typical cytotoxic assay for testing concentration–based efficacy of a toxic compound. Four different concentrations of the same cytotoxic agent are tested on mammalian target cells in a 96-well plate using viability dyes to detect the levels of toxicity-percentage of dead cells. Statistical analysis of the obtained results shows that more than a two-fold increase in a concentration of the tested cytotoxic agent does not significantly affect the viability of cells. Index Terms—cytotoxicity, F-test, live/dead assay, variance analysis I