Conclusions
Combinations of variables are often more than the sum of their parts
One variable at a time methods are slow and seldom find the best outcome
Design of experiments approaches are efficient, automatable and rapidly identify important combinations of variables
Assays optimized through DOE are more robust than non-optimized assays
Optimized assays are more sensitive to inhibitors than non-optimized assays.
These approaches can substantially reduce the cycle time for assay development and improve the ability of the screen to identify active compounds.