(Photo)convert to pooled visual screening

Pooled genetic screening is a powerful method to systematically link genotype to phenotype and gain insights into biological processes, but applying it to visual phenotypes such as cell morphology or protein localization has remained a challenge. In their recent work, Fowler and colleagues (Hasle et al, 2020) describe an elegant approach for high‐throughput cell sorting according to visual phenotypes based on selective photoconversion. This allows combining the advantages of high‐content phenotyping by fluorescence microscopy with the efficiency of pooled screening to dissect complex phenotypes.