Nina Grossmann, Discovery Pharmacology, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany
At Merck, a proprietary library of roughly 1 Mio drug like compounds is screened in 10-15 HTS campaigns per year. Respective assays range from simple binding analysis to complex phenotypic assays with multiple read-out parameters. To as early as possible understand the molecular mode of action of active compounds, we also implement mode of action assays, such as competition assays or jump dilution assays into the HTS campaigns. Furthermore, selectivity and interference assays complement each HTS run to sort out false positives and promiscuous compounds on the fly.At Merck, a proprietary library of roughly 1 Mio drug like compounds is screened in 10-15 HTS campaigns per year. Respective assays range from simple binding analysis to complex phenotypic assays with multiple read-out parameters. To as early as possible understand the molecular mode of action of active compounds, we also implement mode of action assays, such as competition assays or jump dilution assays into the HTS campaigns. Furthermore, selectivity and interference assays complement each HTS run to sort out false positives and promiscuous compounds on the fly.Thus, each HTS campaign demands the development of multiple robust and high-quality assays in very short time. New generation liquid handlers allow for a significant automatization of such activities and can both, speed up assay development and allow for the generation of more assays with the same resources. In the last two years, we evaluated several of such devices and finally implemented a range of flexible bench top dispensing robots in our labs. Using these, we were able to speed up assay development, multiplex assays and save reagents. Furthermore, we could reduce miniaturization efforts by directly developing assays on 1536-well plates. This talk will exemplify, how we use these robots to quickly set up robust high throughput assays.
