omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

WP048
Scott Reeves
REMP USA
150 Hopping Brook Road
Holliston, Massachusetts 01746
scott.reeves@remp.com
Co-Author(s)
Michael Girardi, REMP USA
Carol Homon, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Thorsten Poetter, Bayer Crop Science AG
Berta Strulovici, Merck & Company, Inc.
Gerhard Mihm, Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharma KG
Tools for Sample Management that are Efficient, Versatile, Proven and Evolving – REMP Tube
Technologies
High Throughput Screening (HTS) has been heralded as the way to develop better drugs faster. Screening
technologies in drug discovery have recently seen dramatic advances which have led to throughputs of
over 100,000 compounds per assay per day. There has also been an emergence of a plethora of new assay
technologies enabling a greater range of targets to be screened, all of which have helped catapult HTS into ultra
HTS (UHTS).
However, to be successful at drug discovery, the Compound Management operation must be efficient, versatile,
and evolving while trying to ensure that their compound libraries are of the highest quality. In the past, the
management of compound collections were performed by groups that were viewed as serving simple dispensary
functions. Investment in this operation was small and its role not understood by many in drug discovery
organizations. The importance of the corporate compound collection, often regarded as “the company’s largest
asset” or it’s “crown jewels,” shifted from the collection size being the most important factor to a more balanced
view of the importance of quality and quantity. The results of HTS and UHTS, as well as the drug discovery
process as a whole, is only as good as the compounds that are delivered and, therefore, a very important factor in
its relative success or failure. This poster will provide some insight and data from several Compound Management
operations that are considered to be efficient, versatile and evolving and describe how this has been achieved.
WP049
Heidrun Rhode
Friedrich-Schiller-University, Medical Faculty
Institute of Biochemistry
Jena07740 Germany
heidrun-rhode@mti.uni-jena.de
Co-Author(s)
M. Schulze, G. A. Cumme, A. Horn, Simon Renard, and
Thomas Moore, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Medical Faculty
Peter Zimmermann, CyBio AG
Multichannel HTS/ µHTS Liquid Handling Systems – Check Using Two-Indicator Systems
Multichannel HTS/µHTS liquid handling systems have to be checked under conditions close to the screening
reality, i.e., with commonly used sample solutions and employing microplate technology. We propose a simple
method to determine precision and accuracy of multichannel liquid handling systems using a combination of
gravimetric and optical measurements. The precision of the optical signal is improved by multi-wavelength
measurements using two indicators and buffers with low temperature dependence of pH. Factors causing nonlinearity
between the sample volume delivered into a well and the optical signal are considered. The resolution
of the method i.e., the imprecision of the measuring system as determined by the imprecision of the signal of a
homogeneous solution with two indicators is better than 0.3% CV and 2% CV using absorbance and fluorescence
measurements, respectively, suggesting that absorbance measurements should be preferred. The gravimetrically
determined inaccuracy is less than 0.5% CV. The suitability of the method proposed is demonstrated with two
liquid handling devices using different ejection principles, with commonly used fluids, with 96, 384 and 1536
microplates, and with photometric and fluorimetric indicators. Despite the substantial improvement of fluorescence
signals by multi-wavelength measurements, fluorimetry still tends to overestimate the imprecision of a liquid
handling system. Imprecisions obtained with optimized methods and with both devices were lower than 2% CV for
2 µl set volume with 384- and 1536-well microplates and about 1% CV with higher set volumes.
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POSTER ABSTRACTS