Biochemical & cellular assays

Biochemical assays measure and can be used to understand biochemistry and protein biology, eg quantify metabolites or measure enzyme activity. In the broadest sense, biochemical assays are all assays that measure proteins and biochemistry, including immunoassays. 

Cell-based assays analyze cellular processes, such as apoptosis or cell proliferation. They also measure the activity of pathways within the cell by looking at an output of the pathway that affects cell behavior (or its organelles) or at a marker that correlates with that pathway. There are two classes of cell-based assays; those that require genetic modification of the cell itself to produce measurable output and those that rely on chemical dyes, antibodies, and proteins for output.