omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

9:30 am Thursday, February 5 High Throughput Screening – Automated Design Room A2
Amy Siu
GlaxoSmithKline, Inc.
5 Moore Drive
Durham, North Carolina 27709
amy.y.siu@gsk.com
Automated Cell-based Assay Optimization by Design of Experiment
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Co-Author(s)
Jimmy Bruner, Deirdre Luttrell,
Cathy Finlay, Mike Emptage,
David Cooper
The High Throughput Biology (HTB) department at GlaxoSmithKline implements statistical methods and
procedures for developing and validating cell-based assays. Design of experiments (DOE) is a widely used
and proven statistical method for optimizing experiments and processes. During phase I, the automation team
in partnership with the statistics group did five DOEs to optimize the performance of a proprietary Erk MAPK
Activation HitKit from Cellomics. In phase II, the team developed an in-house kit, using three DOEs. The
GSK in-house kit was directly compared to the Cellomics Hitkits as optimized in phase I. The GSK kit had a
larger window, lower background, and lower variability. Reagent costs for the two kits were also compared. This
presentation describes experimental designs, automation programs, and statistical analysis of the data.
3:00 pm Tuesday, February 3 Microfluidics Room A4
Katherine Dunphy
University of California, Berkeley
6186 Etcheverry Hall
Berkeley, California 94720-1740
kadunphy@me.berkeley.edu
Low-voltage, Spatially-localized Electrokinetic Control
Co-Author(s)
R. Karnik
A. Majumdar
Electrokinetic control is used in microfluidics as a method of choice due to ease of fabrication and lack of moving
parts. Current work, however, relies on a single electric field generated by high voltages applied via electrodes at
the channel ends. The high voltages necessary for current electrokinetic control require bulky and costly voltage
sources, limiting microfluidics from becoming truly portable. In addition, spatially localized electric fields within the
microchannel itself have not previously been accomplished due to the challenge of bubble formation (hydrolysis
of water) at the electrodes. This work exploits electrochemical reactions at electrodes to create a device to have
temporal and spatially localized electrokinetic control within a microchannel, accomplished with ±1V. This work
introduces the use of silver-silver chloride electrodes within the microchannel to maintain an electric field. This
work explains the use of Ag-AgCl electrodes to allow for temporal resolution and electric field programmability.
By fabricating arrays of electrodes along the length of the microchannel, the electric field can be spatially
controlled along the length of the channel. This work demonstrates electric fields comparable to those of gel
electrophoresis, resulting in electrophoretic control of molecules in solution. These fields are controllable temporally
as well as spatially, demonstrating new gains in electrokinetic control. The use of silver-silver chloride electrodes
is an elegant, simple solution to a major challenge in microfluidic research. Development of such control allows
microfluidics to move away from bulky, complex control to more compact, programmable, electrokinetic control.