For a high resolution image contact David Robinson

Royston, UK – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) has announced data showing the effectiveness of TTP LabTech’s Acumen Explorer™ for high content screening at high throughput. This exciting development was carried out as part of the NCGC’s unique quantitative HTS (qHTS) programme.

The NCGC is at the cutting edge of small molecule screening, running 50-70% of assays in a cellular format. The work involves extensive screening of the genome and data produced can be accessed by the entire research community via a public database (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), so reliability of results is paramount. The NCGC’s qHTS programme assays multiple concentrations of each compound and generates hundreds of thousands of concentration-effect relationships from primary screening. Consequently, there is a significant increase in wells screened over traditional single point testing, to a magnitude of 7- to 15-fold. Therefore, a truly high throughput automated system for screening 1536 well plates was essential.

The NCGC has integrated TTP LabTech’s Acumen Explorer laser-scanning cytometer into its major screening system from Kalypsys, Inc. Here it will be used for population distribution analysis of cells in microplates, initially providing reporter gene analysis.

The Acumen Explorer is a laser scanning rather than image acquisition system. Subsequent analysis means that data files are tiny – essential in such a high throughput system. Laser scanning and a wide field of view makes the Acumen Explorer capable of generating 300,000 data points in 24 hours working in a 1536 well format.

ENDS


For more information visit

www.ttplabtech.com

Editors’ notes

About Acumen Explorer™

TTP LabTech’s Acumen Explorer fluorescence microplate cytometer enables rapid high content screening for applications such as protein kinase activation, cell cycle analysis and beta-lactamase reporter gene analysis. Its optics collect and analyse data for up to 4 colours simultaneously in a single scan across the entire well area; screening adherent, non-adherent, live or fixed cells. Typical scan and analysis times are under 10 minutes a plate.

About TTP LabTech Ltd

Based near Cambridge, UK, TTP LabTech is part of TTP Group plc, one of the world's most successful technology companies. TTP LabTech’s mission is to provide practical and innovative solutions in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries by combining the best science with first-rate engineering. TTP LabTech’s products are designed to increase efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility or overall capability in key biopharmaceutical research processes including compound storage (comPOUND®), low volume liquid handling (mosquito®) and fluorescence detection (Acumen Explorer™).

About the NCGC and the NIH Roadmap Initiative

The NCGC is an ultrahigh-throughput screening and chemistry centre which discovers chemical probes of gene and cell functions across the genome using its quantitative HTS (qHTS) technology, and develops new paradigms for screening that enable chemical genomics and downstream drug development. Located within the National Human Genome Research Institute as part of the NIH Roadmap, all of the NCGC’s results are made freely available via PubChem ( http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ). NIH Roadmap for Medical research is a series of far-reaching initiatives designed to transform the Nation’s medical research capabilities and speed the movement of scientific discoveries from the bench to the bedside. It provides a framework of the priorities the NIH must address in order to optimize its entire research portfolio and lays out a vision for a more efficient and productive system of medical research. Additional information about the NCGC can be found at http://www.ncgc.nih.gov , about the NIH Roadmap at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov  , and about the NIH at http://www.nih.gov/ .