It is frequently used in cancer research laboratories to determine the effect of drugs or radiation on proliferating tumor cells[1] as well as for titration of Cell-killing Particles (CKPs) in virus stocks.
For example, at a dose of 0 or 1 gray of radiation, 500 cells might be plated, but at 4 or 5 gray, 2500 might be plated, since very large numbers of cells are killed at this level of radiation and the effects of the specific treatment would be unobservable.
[7] One such automated machine works by accepting certain types of cell plates through a slot (not unlike a CD player), taking a photograph, and uploading it to a computer for immediate analysis.
If the slopes of their survival curves differ significantly, then a potentiating effect may be evident and could be studied further.
Since many tumor cells won't grow colonies in culture, cell proliferation assay, which has a satisfactory accuracy reportedly in measuring synergistic effects between ionizing radiation and drugs, may be used as a surrogate [9] A thorough discussion of the promising research being conducted with the aid of this technique is beyond the scope of this text, but some studies involve the effect of the expression of particular genes or receptors on the cell, the responses of different cell types, or synergistic effects of multiple drugs.