New Technical Core to Accelerate Discovery

A new technical core has been established to offer researchers access to low-cost, high-speed screening of chemical libraries in the search for drug candidates. The Laboratory for Chemical Discovery and Screening has assembled high-throughput screening (HTS) tools that will be tremendously useful to all nine IDP and ISP Strategic Plan areas. Whether a researcher is designing molecules to influence stem cell differentiation, or to treat heart disease or cancer, HTS enables efficient screening through vast libraries of chemical compounds to find the few that have a specific quality central to the biological process being studied.

HTS tools are critical as researchers identify disease-related compounds in the lab, and begin “fishing” for small, drug-like molecules that might react with it or interfere with them. The HTS capability makes possible the completion of projects in weeks that once took years with semi-automated, simultaneous analysis of the activity of up to 20,000 molecules at once. The core includes state-of-the-art equipment for assay development and medium-to-high throughput screening, including advanced plate readers, fluid handling systems and plate fillers.

“We believe the new core will provide tremendous value to researchers here by enabling them to generate the early data they need to argue for federal research money that will take their work further,” said Alan V. Smrcka, Ph.D., oversight director of the new HTS Core, and professor of Pharmacology, Physiology, Oncology, Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Medical Center. “The technology also has the potential to generate drug-like molecules that could have therapeutic applications and to make concrete links between basic science and the design of new drugs.”

Along with Smrcka, the core will be directed by Benjamin L. Miller, Ph.D., associate professor of Dermatology and co-leader of the Nanomedicine ISP. To arrange a consult or a screen, please visit the HTS Web site, which includes comprehensive information on HTS equipment capabilities, available compound libraries, as well as all forms and fee information necessary to get started. For more information, contact Technical Director Kim Brucz at 585-275-0859.