Tip washing in TAP's Asset screening platform Credit: THE AUTOMATION PARTNERSHIP

Many companies are finding that installing an efficient high-throughput screening facility is as much about introducing new methods of workflow management as it is about getting the technology right. A single screen involves about 80–100 separate activities, such as making sure each reagent is available, producing recombinant protein and plating the compounds. A major pharmaceutical company could be doing 50–100 screens a year, 40–50 of which may be running concurrently. To keep these running efficiently needs collaborative planning and a commitment to an effective supply chain.

“If the plates don't turn up on the Monday morning, your screen just isn't going to get done. This can't be planned in a lab book,” says Richard Archer, chief executive of The Automation Partnership, a company based in Royston, UK, which supplies high-throughput screening equipment. But the basics of supply-chain management do not come easily to scientists, says Archer, as they tend to get excited by the one novel assay they're planning, rather than by the prospect of keeping the more conventional assays running.

Another difficulty in implementing high-throughput screening is the bias that has existed when it comes to recruiting 'screeners' as opposed to research-focused PhDs. “You get higher up the tree by being a bright scientist than being an efficient process manager,” says Mark Beggs, head of consulting at The Automation Partnership. “The person who discovers the kinase will get further than the one who instigates highly productive screens to identify inhibitors for it.”

Despite these hurdles, process management is increasingly seen as being key to successful screening. Equipment manufacturer Amersham Biosciences, based in Piscataway, New Jersey, recently struck a deal with Cimarron Software, Inc, a laboratory workflow management consultancy based in Salt Lake City, Utah. And when biotech firm Amgen set up a screening facility at its headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California, it brought in a strong engineering team of technical support staff to keep the equipment working. “It seemed to them to be the obvious thing to do, and the firm was surprised to find that this was fairly unique in the industry,” says Archer.