Transformation of normal cells into neoplastic cells occurs through a series of genetic and epigenetic alterations, resulting in a cell population capable of proliferating independently of internal and external signals that normally restrict their growth. Traditionally, the soft agar colony formation test was used to monitor cell transformation and anchorage-independent growth, with manual counting of proliferated cells after 3-4 weeks of cell growth.

 

Our Cell Transformation Assay does not involve subjective manual counting of colonies or require a 3-4 week incubation period. Instead cells are incubated only 6-8 days in a proprietary semisolid agar media before being solubilized, transferred and detected by the provided MTT Solution in a microtiter plate reader (see Assay Principle below). Alternatively, viable transformed cells can be easily recovered for further culturing and testing, such as in protein/DNA array analysis and cancer vaccine development. This format provides a quantitative, high-throughput method to accurately measure cell transformation, while the short incubation time (6-8 days) makes it possible to assay cells transiently transfected with oncogenes or siRNA.