High Throughput Secondary Screening – 1400 Dose-Response Curves per Hour

Jean Shieh, Applications Specialist, Labcyte Inc., jshieh@labcyte.com, (408) 747-2000 ext. 154

We have developed a plate preparation workstation (the POD™ 810 plate assembler) that is controlled by an intellectual scheduler to increase the productivity of secondary screening labs. Dose-response analyses, such as IC50 determinations, are among the most important of the secondary screening assays and also among the most time-consuming and difficult.  They are prone to poor precision due to serial dilutions, and erroneous results due to absorption of compounds. This workstation coordinates multiple assay plate preparation tools to optimize the throughput of any Echo® acoustic liquid handler.  The intellectual scheduler plans multiple tasks simultaneously, according to the availability and need of each device in the workstation. We demonstrate that this plate assembler can set up assay plates for as many as 1400 12-point, six-log, dose-response curves each hour. The throughput and quality of results inherent with the POD plate assembler suggests using a larger number of compounds against a wider range of targets. This can increase the value of the libraries being screened and lead to faster identification of new drug candidates.