MISSIONS

The mission of the READS Unit is to provide the following services:

  1. Access to multimode plate readers. The unit comprises state of the art plate readers and a pipetting robot for assays in 6-384 well plates for fluorescence, luminescence and absorbance, e.g. luciferase, Ca2+, ELISA, FRET, BRET, etc

  2. Assay development.  Optimization and miniaturization of assays into 96 or 384 well plates formats. This is important for improving reproducibility and robustness of assays and allows decreasing the use expensive reagents and increase throughput.

  3. Screening of small molecules.  We have access to a library of more than 9000 molecules, which can be used for a medium scale screening.

  4. Data treatment. We can provide support for calculation of pharmacological parameters (IC50, Emax, Km, Kd, etc) and facilitate management of large amount of data.

  5. Networking. We facilitate access to libraries of compounds and have contacts with experienced medicinal chemists and other partners for drug discovery.

The mission of the READS Unit is to provide the following services:

  1. Access to multimode plate readers.
    The unit comprises state of the art plate readers and a pipetting robot for assays in 6-384 well plates for fluorescence, luminescence and absorbance, e.g. luciferase, Ca2+, ELISA, FRET, BRET, etc

           READERS available at READS

Optimization and miniaturization of assays into 96 or 384 well plates formats. This is important for improving reproducibility and robustness of assays and allows decreasing the use expensive reagents and increase throughput
Assay robustness (Assay performance parameters ):

  • Coefficient of Variation (% CV) measured of the precision of the mean of a control population (CV(%) < 10%)
  • Signal to background (S/B) is calculated from control populations ( Acceptable value > 2)
  • Z Factor represened the assay window (Score value >0.5 means an acceptable assay)

             Publication for Z factor

Assay reproducibility

  • EC50/IC50 variability
  • Experiment1 vs experiment 2  3
  • Operator to operator comparison

Assay throughput

  • Format limitation -> tubes > 6w plate>......>96w plate > 384w plate
  • Biomass limitation -> Primary cells >> Transfected cell line

Signal stability

  • Short signal -> Live recording -> Reading is part of the process
  • Long lasting signal -> Reading off-line
  • Edge effects, reagent stability

Screening > Hit to Lead (H2L) > Lead Optimization (LO)

Compounds libraries available at READS:
(>9000 chemicals compounds stored)

In-House Set :
        CMU toolbox :         32 compounds
        NEURIX toolbox :    13 compounds (NOT AVAILABLE)
        PNX toolbox :          271 compounds    (NOT AVAILABLE)
        TOXIC toolbox :       14 compounds
 
•Discovery Set :
     KINASE toolbox:   80 compounds
      NINDS toolbox:   1040 compounds :308 Therapeutic effects : 32 families contain more than 5                                          compounds/family & 8 families with more than 10 compounds/family.
      PRESTWICK toolbox : 1280 compounds                                                     

•Screening Set :
      MAYBRIDGE toolbox :   6301 compounds
 
•Access to the NCCR (EPFL) : 90 000 compounds :
 

HIGH THROUGHPUT SCREENING (96 or 384)

  • Non cell based assay:
  • Binding assays
  • Cell based:
  • Membrane potential assays
  • Ca2+ Measurement 
  • Label-Free using cellular impedance index.

 Secondary selectivity counter-screen should be developed for similar channels.

 Assay automation

SOFTWARE SUPPORT

Programmation of personalized visual basic macros for complex data treatment.

We can provide support for calculation of pharmacological parameters (IC50, Emax, Km, Kd, etc) and facilitate management of large amount of data.