As the pace of immunotherapy and translational biology accelerates, researchers are looking beyond static measurements of gene expression to understand how cells behave, respond, interact, and evolve over time.

Bruker Cellular Analysis recently launched the Beacon Discovery™ platform, an accessible, compact, and flexible benchtop system that brings live single-cell functional analysis to a wider range of academic and biopharma labs. Drug Discovery News spoke with Vikram Devgan, Vice President of Global Marketing and Product Management at Bruker Cellular Analysis, to learn how this new system is changing how scientists approach single-cell research and therapeutic discovery.

What was the motivation behind developing Beacon Discovery?

For years, our Beacon platform has enabled high-throughput single-cell functional screening in large discovery environments, particularly for therapeutic antibody campaigns and cell line development in bioproduction. However, there was clearly an unmet need in the broader research community: Scientists in academic labs and translational settings wanted access to the same powerful live single-cell functional capabilities in a more cost-effective format.

Beacon Discovery was designed to meet that need by offering the same core features of the Beacon platform — precise control over single-cell experimentation, live cell imaging, multimodal assays, and integration of genomics and transcriptomics — while being more affordable, compact, and user-friendly. The goal is to provide broader access to function-first science.

Why is functional analysis so critical in single-cell biology today?

Most traditional single-cell platforms can tell us what a cell expresses, which genes and proteins are active, and what surface markers are present, but they do not show how a cell actually behaves or functions in its environment. For immunologists, cell therapy developers, vaccine developers, or anyone studying the immune system, that functional dimension is critical.

What matters is not just whether a T cell is expressing the right genes and proteins. What matters is whether it kills its target, secretes the right cytokines, and persists under therapeutic pressure. In antibody discovery, it is not enough to identify a B cell that binds an antigen. Researchers need to know if it secretes a high-affinity, functionally potent antibody. 

Antibody discovery is becoming increasingly challenging. Targets are more complex, characterization requirements are growing, and timelines are shrinking. To run a successful campaign, researchers need greater sequence diversity, more comprehensive characterization, and a fast, function-first screening workflow.

How does Beacon Discovery technically deliver that capability?

The system uses our proprietary opto-electrical positioning (OEP) technology, combined with OptoSelect® microfluidic chips, to isolate and analyze thousands of live single cells in NanoPens. 

For T cell profiling, thousands of live T cells can be characterized in parallel, running multiple sequential assays, like cytokine detection, cytotoxicity, and cell surface marker staining, on the same cell, and capturing functional activity in real time with live cell imaging. Then, when a promising cell is identified, it can be recovered and sent for downstream TCR-seq, or transcriptomics profiling. That direct connection between function and molecular identity is incredibly powerful. 

Likewise, for antibody discovery, researchers can run serial multiple antibody functional screening assays, including antigen specificity, cross-reactivity, affinity, membrane-bound antigen cell-binding assay, ligand blocking assay, internalization assay, on tens of thousands of single B cells in just one day. Top candidates are exported, sequenced within a week, and expressed for rapid downstream characterization. Beacon Discovery truly provides end-to-end antibody discovery workflow.

What types of research are best suited for Beacon Discovery?

We are seeing strong early use in T cell profiling, tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) characterization, and chimeric antigen receptor/T-cell receptor (CAR/TCR) discovery, and cell therapy validation, especially when researchers want to understand how different subsets behave under stimulation or compare their relative potency.

It is also valuable in antibody discovery, not just screening B cells for binding, but for full functional profiles including affinity, specificity, cross-reactivity, and ligand blocking. And since it enables custom workflows, researchers are using it for vaccine response tracking and even biomarker discovery in translational studies.

What sets Beacon Discovery apart from other single-cell platforms?

Several things. The first is exquisite control: Researchers can build custom single-cell experiments, pair cells, deliver reagents at specific times, and observe what happens in real time. The second feature is depth: The ability to run serial assays on the same cell gives multimodal and temporal resolution that isn’t possible with snapshot technologies. Third, and maybe most importantly, is accessibility: Beacon Discovery is a cost-effective benchtop system with intuitive easy-to-use interface. It fits in academic labs and is a good option even for biotech startups. And finally, it is proven: It is built on the same optofluidic technology that has already powered dozens of published studies using our larger Beacon platforms.

Can you share how early adopters are using the system?

One of our early users, a translational immuno-oncology group, is using Beacon Discovery to identify rare TILs with actual cytotoxic activity and then sequence their TCRs. That would be nearly impossible to do efficiently with conventional methods.

Another lab is conducting sequential functional assays on memory B cells to identify those producing high-potency antibodies against viral antigens. They can go from sample to sequence-ready leads, with full functional validation, all on a compact benchtop system.

What do you see as the long-term impact of Beacon Discovery?

I believe we are shifting the field from expression driven single-cell analysis to function-first single-cell discovery. It’s no longer sufficient to just know what a cell expresses on paper; we need to understand what it’s doing, how it behaves, and whether it holds potential for further investigation. 

Beacon Discovery makes this capability accessible to more labs, enabling multimodal and temporal live single-cell functional analysis. This shift will drive deeper insights, improve candidate identification, and ultimately lead to better therapies.