A standard operating procedure for assessing liquid handler performance in high-throughput screening.
The thrust of early drug discovery in recent years has been toward the configuration of homogeneous miniaturized assays. This has allowed organizations to contain costs in the face of exponential increases in the number of screening assays that need to be run to remain competitive. Miniaturization brings with it an increasing dependence on instrumentation, which over the past several years has seen the development of nanodispensing capability and sophisticated detection strategies. To maintain confidence in the data generated from miniaturized assays, it is critical to ensure that both compounds and reagents have been delivered as expected to the target wells. The authors have developed a standard operating procedure for liquid-handling quality control that has enabled them to evaluate performance on 2 levels. The first level provides for routine daily testing on existing instrumentation, and the second allows for more rigorous testing of new dispensing technologies. The procedure has shown itself to be useful in identifying both method programming and instrumentation performance shortcomings and has provided a means to harmonizing instrumentation usage by assay development and screening groups. The goal is that this type of procedure be used for facilitating the exchange of liquid handler performance data across the industry.
GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Department of Molecular Screening, King of Prussia, PA, USA.
Paul B
PB
Taylor
Stephen
S
Ashman
Stuart M
SM
Baddeley
Stacy L
SL
Bartram
Clive D
CD
Battle
Brian C
BC
Bond
Yvonne M
YM
Clements
Nathan J
NJ
Gaul
W Elliot
WE
McAllister
Juan A
JA
Mostacero
Fernando
F
Ramon
Jamie M
JM
Wilson
Robert P
RP
Hertzberg
Andrew J
AJ
Pope
Ricardo
R
Macarron
D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D008832:Microchemistry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards*; D009339:Needles; D011786:Quality Control; D013193:Stainless Steel
D013193:Stainless Steel