Scintillation proximity assay: a versatile high-throughput screening technology

Recent advances in generating small molecule libraries, using a wide variety of combinatorial chemistry approaches, have increased the pressure on screening methodology to enable rapid evaluation of the compound library database and, accordingly, to identify lead chemical structures. In order to screen such large numbers effectively, the high-throughput screen must be robust, automatable and precise. Scintillation proximity assay is an established high-throughput screening technology that allows the design of high-flux assays for a wide variety of biochemical and cellular targets. The method requires no separation step and relies entirely on pipetting in a ‘mix and measure’ format.