Newsletter November: The R&D cosmetics teams leading in vitro innovation

Welcome to the November edition of the AI for Live Cell Insights Newsletter, bringing you to the latest live cell analyses powering drug discovery and cosmetics development. Each month, we will explore a new application of AI-based cellular analysis for label-free live cell imaging, with publication highlights and news from Nanolive. This month, we are looking at how teams are using AI-powered analysis of in vitro models to innovate cosmetics and personal care research. 

Finally, we will also feature recent publications spanning metabolism, nanotherapeutics, cell death, and immunotherapy. 

How is AI-powered cellular analysis being used in cosmetics R&D?  

With animal testing bans in place, cosmetics R&D urgently needs reliable in vitro models. By replacing chemical dyes with label-free imaging and analysis, Nanolive enables high-content, unbiased testing on live cells, ensuring ingredient safety and efficacy, while maximizing biological relevance.  

There is no pipeline-building or raw data handling involved, enabling researchers to make data-driven decisions and focus on discovery. 

To learn how Nanolive imaging and analysis can accelerate your personal care R&D and provide new, unique insights, download our 1-pager with more details

Anti-aging senolytics: dsm-firmenich 

Senolytic ingredients selectively target and kill senescent cells, whilst leaving healthy cells unharmed, making them a useful tool for anti-aging cosmetics. dsm-firmenich’s Dr Leithe Budel wrote about his team’s research on senolytic ingredient efficacy for specifically targeting and treating senescent skin cells in the Cosmetics and Toiletries Journal. He used Nanolive’s LIVE Cytotoxicity Assay to measure apoptosis of human dermal fibroblasts which were treated with a senolytic ingredient. As he notes, it was important to measure apoptotic death label-free, without introducing confounding factors or phototoxicity from fluorescent dyes. 

Read the full article here. 

Hyperpigmentation: mesoestetic  

• Skin aging in adipocytes and fibroblasts, and treatment effects of hyaluronic and succinic acid (2025): https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26157548 
• Testing wound healing effects of a new compound (2024): https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16111405 
• Quantification of melanin granules in melanocytes (2023): https://doi.org/10.1111/exd.14752 

mesoestetic used Nanolive imaging to study melanocytes like the one that can be seen in this video 

Digital solutions for industry questions

Nanolive’s digital analysis solutions provide industry teams with:  

• A streamlined, automated workflow: save time and money, while increasing reproducibility 

• Unbiased, biologically relevant data: monitor cells label-free over time without perturbation. 

• Increased predictive value of in vitro assays: capture structural and functional changes in parallel with high content, 

•  multiplexed, live cell data 

• Accelerated discovery and validation: obtain a digital phenotypic fingerprint for each compound. 

The video below, produced in collaboration with mesoestetic, shows the value of dynamic live cell imaging, as Nanolive’s Smart Lipid Droplet Assay automatically detects, segments, and measures lipid droplet dynamics in human skin cells, to quantify the effects of exposure to advanced glycation end products (AGEs); a key cause of aging. Lipid droplets help maintain the skin’s moisture barrier, which helps skin to stay hydrated. Lipid droplets can’t be seen using a light microscope, so fixation and staining is a commonly used imaging method, however Nanolive’s platform is able to visualize and quantify lipid droplets, completely label free.  

For more information on the Smart Lipid Droplet Assay, and how it can be used to study lipid responses in cells, click here to download our phenotypic fingerprinting application note.

The Smart Lipid Droplet Assay was used to quantify lipid droplet dry mass density, area, compactness, and eccentricity over time, in primary human dermal fibroblast cells exposed to advanced glycation end products. 

Upcoming event: Webinar 

Understanding the balance between T cell killing, persistence, and exhaustion is the essential basis for creating effective CAR T cell therapies for cancer and auto-immune conditions. How can heterogeneous T cell responses be studied, and how can CAR T cells be enhanced for improved persistence and efficacy? Nanolive’s LIVE T Cell Assay has quantitative answers!

Dr Roddy O’Connor will be sharing his work on metabolic engineering of CAR T cells and explaining how the killing ability of these CAR T cells was improved in in our  webinar which airs December 3.

Sign up to the webinar here.

Latest publication highlights with Nanolive imaging:

• Autophagic cell death: Zhao, B. et al. (2025) ‘XPC Deficiency Activate Cisplatin-Mediated Autophagy in Bladder Cancer by Limiting Novel PHRF1-Mediated Ubiquitination of the p53 Protein’ Advanced Science https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202517563  

• Immunotherapy: Li, L. et al. (2025) ‘Precision tumor immunotherapy via a dual-gated macrophage–bacterial activation platform’ Trends in Biotechnology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2025.09.013  

• Lipid droplet metabolism: Komsky‐Elbaz, A. et al. (2025) ‘Extracellular Vesicles, Lipid Droplets and AhR Ligands in Early Implantation: The Dynamics of Embryo‐Maternal Crosstalk’ Journal of Extracellular Vesicles https://doi.org/10.1002/jev2.70161  

• Nanotherapeutics: Shao, Z., et al. (2025) ‘An oral H2S nanotherapeutics for hypertensive chronic kidney disease via synergistic antihypertensive and renoprotective activities’ Journal of Controlled Release https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2025.114419  

Find over 350 publications featuring Nanolive imaging here.

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