HIGH-THROUGHPUT SCREENING & ASSAYS

Storage system

The Mol Bank from Tecan (Hombrechtikon, Switzerland) is a compact plate storage system for high-throughput laboratories. Mol Bank holds over 2,500 microplates or any combination of microplates and deep-well plates; just a few units can store an entire library in a normal laboratory environment, with no need for building extensions or special storage rooms. It includes an integral robot for automated plate delivery and retrieval, and a bar-code tracing system that automatically updates substance inventories in the database. http://www.tecan.com

Lead screening

The LEADSeeker Homogenous Imaging System from Amersham Pharmacia Biotech (Buckinghamshire, UK) comprises self-contained instrumentation, software, and novel reagents to increase the number of potential drugs researchers can screen at one time. With a sensitive digital camera, the instrument can read a 384-well microplate in less than 10 minutes, and it is being developed further to read 1,536-well plates, as well as move from radioactive labeling to fluorescence and luminescence. http://www.apbiotech.com

Fluid delivery

Hamilton Company's (Reno, NV) Microlab MPH-96 robotic pipetting system is designed for high-throughput replication and reformatting of standard and high-density microplates, PCR reaction setup, and reagent distribution and dilutions. The 96 precision metal probe tips and motor-driven syringes improve the accuracy and precision of fluid delivery down to sub-microliter volumes, and a high-efficiency wash system cleanses the probe tips, eliminating the expense of disposable tips and reducing the overall cost of screening pharmaceutical lead compounds. +1 800 648 5950

Precoated microplates

The FlashPlate HTS 384-well microplate from NEN Life Science Products (Boston, MA) is the first practical assay platform for miniaturized high-throughput screening. It supports homogeneous assays, and is available precoated, both from stock as well as NEN's custom plate-coating service. Its design has been optimized to minimize capillary action, reducing well-to-well contamination, and conversion from 96-well to FlashPlate HTS's 384-well format requires only minor assay protocol changes. http://www.nenlifesci.com

FERMENTORS & BIOREACTORS

Customizable fermentor

New Brunswick Scientific (Edison, NJ) has developed a fully customizable benchtop fermentor for microbial, insect, and mammalian cell culture in applications ranging from process development to small-scale production. The sterilizable-in-place BioFlo 4500 fermentor provides advanced programming control capabilities through a built-in multiloop controller with simple touch-screen interface. Capabilities include rapid temperature shifts for heat induction and oxygen transfer rates of up to 350 mM O2/L/hr. http://www.nbsc.com

Cell culture system

The Wave Bioreactor from Wave Biotech (Bedminster, NJ) is a cell culture system using presterile, disposable chambers called Cellbags. Cells in the culture medium only contact biocompatible plastics. When the Cellbag is placed on the special rocking platform, waves are induced in the culture fluid, providing mixing and oxygen transfer, and resulting in a cell growth environment that can support over 7 × 106 cells/ml. The bioreactor requires no cleaning or sterilization, and can be scaled up to larger (>100 liter) volumes. http://www.wavebiotech.com