1. Covance Laboratories, Otley Road, Harrogate HG3 1PY, UK., 2. Labcyte Inc. Rose Orchard Way, San Jose, California 95134, USA.
Paula Urquhart 1, John Lesnick 2, Stuart Dunn 1, Aurore Lejuene-Dodge 2, David Sampson 2 and Sian Estdale 1
TNFα is a pro-inflammatory cytokine overexpressed in autoimmune disease and is a target for drug development. Adalimumab (Humira™) is an anti-TNFα antibody which binds TNFα and suppresses the immune response. An established model for anti-TNFα therapeutics is the L929 mouse fibroblast cytotoxicity assay. We describe the optimization of the cell-based workflow to provide an automated small volume 384 well bioassay with many benefits compared to traditional methods. The result is a single instrument assay which provides additional replicates in a miniaturized reaction to reduce sample requirement and cost.
