Enabling 1536-Well High-Throughput Cell-Based Screening through the Application of Novel Centrifugal Plate Washing:

Cell-based assays have long been important within hit discovery paradigms; however, improving the disease relevance of the assay system can positively affect the translation of small-molecule drug discovery, especially if adopted in the initial hit identification assay. Consequently, there is an increasing need for disease-relevant assay systems capable of running at large scale, including the use of induced pluripotent stem cells and donor-derived primary cells. Major hurdles to adopting these assays for high-throughput screening are the cost, availability of cells, and complex protocols. Miniaturization of such assays to 1536-well format is an approach that can reduce costs and increase throughput. Adaptation of these complex cell assays to 1536-well format brings major challenges in liquid handling for high-content assays requiring washing steps and coating of plates. In addition, problematic edge effects and reduced assay quality are frequently encountered. In this study, we describe the novel applica...