omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

8:00 am Wednesday, February 4 Emerging Technologies – Cell Based Screening Room A3
Evan Cromwell
Blueshift Biotechnologies, Inc.
238 E. Caribbean Drive
Sunnyvale, California 94089
ecromwell@blueshiftbiotech.com
Novel Cellular Analysis Platform for Drug Discovery
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Co-Author(s)
Chris Shumate,
Paul B. Comita
The drug discovery industry is in need of improved screening technologies that provide knowledge and foresight
into success of new drug candidates. Currently most discovery efforts make use of fluorescence intensity for high
throughput and high content screening (HTS/HCS). One of the more recent developments in optical imaging for
complex biological systems is the use of fluorescence emission lifetime for imaging microscopy (FLIM). Fluorescent
lifetime and polarization imaging of cells provide powerful tools for assays that use detection of the presence,
quantity, and location of labeled molecules and their binding state. Incorporating these features into a fast and
inexpensive commercial product is a significant technical challenge. Blueshift Biotechnologies is addressing
this challenge by exploiting recent advances in laser sources, semiconductor inspection technology, fluorescent
probes, and high content screening. Blueshift will present a novel cellular analysis platform to drive drug discovery
research and HTS applications.
8:15 am Wednesday, February 4 Emerging Technologies – Cell Based Screening Room A3
James Costantin
Molecular Devices Corp.
1131 Orleans Drive
Sunnyvale, California 94089
Screening for Ion Channel Modulators Using the IonWorks HT System
Co-Author(s)
Shawn Handran, Andrew Wittel,
Sven Brown, Nick Callamaras,
Wilhelm Lachnit
The IonWorks HT instrument is an automated high throughput voltage clamp platform that measures whole-cell
currents from multiple cells in parallel using 384-well PatchPlates. This robust, turn-key platform performs highly
consistent, single-point lead candidate screens for modulators of ion channel activity and has the fidelity required
for IC50 determinations. Successful recordings have been obtained from a variety of cultured cell lines (e.g., CHO,
CHL, HEK) expressing recombinant ion channels. For single-point screening, data was generated from compound
plates prepared containing randomly distributed compounds as well as controls. Following the identification of
active wells, an 8-point IC50 curve for each compound was obtained. Results are presented for compounds that
affect hERG, Na+ and other voltage-gated ion channels. The IC50 curves generated from IonWorks HT are
comparable to values obtained in parallel by conventional patch clamp electrophysiology. IonWorks HT provides
an enormous opportunity to screen pharmaceutical compound libraries directly at the electrophysiological level for
more cost-effective and accelerated identification of therapeutic ion channel targets.