AquaBluer™ is a proprietary colorimetric and fluorescent redox indicator for assaying cell (mammalian, plant, and bacterial) viability, cell proliferation, and cytotoxicity.
- 75% lower cost than Alamar Blue — 15,000 assays per 15 mL vial at ~$0.014/assay
- Drop-in replacement for Alamar Blue — same workflow, same plate reader, no protocol changes needed
- Nontoxic and published in Nature, Nature Cell Biology, and Cell Chemical Biology across ferroptosis, CRISPR, and oncology drug screens
AquaBluer™ (15 mL for 15,000 cell viability assays)
15 mL AquaBluer™ (AB6015M), sufficient for 15,000 assays at 100 µL each.
US: 2-3 days, $0. Canada: 3-5 days, $50. Others: 3-5 days, $100.
Selected Publications Using AquaBluer™
AquaBluer™ has been used in peer-reviewed studies spanning ferroptosis, oxidative stress, cancer signaling, CRISPR functional genomics, and cell-based toxicology.
Ferroptosis & Oxidative Cell Death
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Li C, Zhang Y, Liu J, Kang R, Klionsky DJ, Tang D. Activation of glutathione peroxidase 4 as a novel anti-inflammatory strategy. Front Pharmacol. 2018;9:1120.
Viability measured using the AquaBluer assay.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2018.01120
PDF: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2018.01120/pdf -
Shah R, Farmer LA, Zilka O, Pratt DA. Beyond DPPH: fluorescence-enabled inhibited autoxidation predicts oxidative cell death rescue. Cell Chem Biol. 2019;26(11):1594-1607.e7.
Cell survival quantified using AquaBluer.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451945619302855 -
Nakamura T, Cho K, Yang CR, et al. Phase separation of FSP1 promotes ferroptosis. Nature. 2023.
Ferroptosis viability assays performed with AquaBluer.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06255-6 -
Zhu Y, Lee JH, Chen W, et al. Loss of WIPI4 causes autophagy-independent ferroptosis. Nat Cell Biol. 2024.
Cell viability measured using AquaBluer.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-024-01373-3 -
Ofoghi A, et al. Activating the NFE2L1–ubiquitin–proteasome system by DDI2 protects from proteotoxic stress. Cell Death Differ. 2025;32:480-487.
AquaBluer (MultiTarget) used for viability detection.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-024-01398-z -
Yan H, et al. Decreased ferroptosis in male colorectal cancer patients with KRAS mutations. Cell Death Dis. 2023;14:161.
Viability assessed using the AquaBluer assay.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002683/
PDF: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002683/pdf -
Zilka O. Regulation of Ferroptosis by GPX4. PhD thesis, University of Ottawa; 2018.
AquaBluer used extensively for GPX4-dependent survival assays.
https://ruor.uottawa.ca/items/3e7650c1
Cancer, Cell Signaling & Genome-Wide Screens
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Paradis JS, Acosta M, Saddawi-Konefka R, et al. Co-targeting FAK and MEK as a multimodality strategy in pancreatic cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2021;27(11):3190-3200.
High-throughput synthetic-lethal viability readouts performed with AquaBluer. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8895627/ -
Chen M, et al. Antioxidant-independent activities of α-tocopherol. J Biol Chem. 2025;301(4):108327.
Cell viability measured using the AquaBluer assay.
https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(25)00176-0/fulltext -
Lubrano S, et al. Inhibition of anti-apoptotic BCL2 overcomes adaptive resistance to co-targeting of the protein kinase FAK and MEK in GNAQ-driven uveal melanoma. J Biol Chem. 2025;301(10):110712.
Combination-treatment viability quantified using AquaBluer.
(Example landing) https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(25)02564-5/fulltext -
Jeong M, et al. An in vitro oxidative stress model of the human inner ear using human induced pluripotent stem cells. Antioxidants (Basel). 2024;13(11):1407.
Hydrogen-peroxide toxicity measured via AquaBluer.
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/13/11/1407
PDF: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/13/11/1407/pdf
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