title: A practical approach to automate randomized design of experiments for ligand-binding assays.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Design of experiments (DOE) is utilized in optimizing ligand-binding assay by modeling factor effects. To reduce the analyst's workload and error inherent with DOE, we propose the integration of automated liquid handlers to perform the randomized designs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A randomized design created from statistical software was imported into custom macro converting the design into a liquid-handler worklist to automate reagent delivery. An optimized assay was transferred to a contract research organization resulting in a successful validation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We developed a practical solution for assay optimization by integrating DOE and automation to increase assay robustness and enable successful method transfer. The flexibility of this process allows it to be applied to a variety of assay designs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. jtsoi@mednet.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tsoi
authors.forename: Vimal
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shih
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000379:methods*; D008024:Ligands; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011485:Protein Binding; D011897:Random Allocation; D012107:Research Design; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands