HTS Equipment

Southern Research's HTS Center has multiple Beckman Coulter robotic platforms to support large-scale screening projects.

These high-throughput systems automate the assay process from drug preparation through assay completion. The liquid-handling stations have 384- and 1536-channel pipetting capabilites. Other stations on the platforms allow bar code printing and reading, plate and reservoir storage (ambient, cold-storage, and CO2 humidity-controlled), microplate delidding, plate shaking, filtration, plate sealing, and continuous disposable tip supply. Results from the assays are quantified using one of the various plate readers. Our detections capabilities include fluorescence (including time-resolved), luminescence, fluorescence polarization, photometrics, AlphaScreen^TM, liquid scintillation and absorbance.

The ORCA (Optimized Robot for Chemical Analysis) Arm serves as the interface between the equipment on each platform. It carries the transports (plates and reservoirs) and consumables (tips) from station to station. All of the instruments are controlled by the SAMI NT (SAGIAN Automated Method Interface) method creation software and the SILAS (SAMI NT Software Integration of Laboratory Automation Systems) router software. SILAS serves as the underlying architecture for all of the equipment and software communications. SAMI NT is the user-interface for the programming of assays on the platform.

The LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) software allows tracking of samples, plates and consumables from receipt to long-term storage or disposal. The LIMS also serves as a QC tool, allowing us to monitor all of the steps in an assay.

High-Throughput Screening
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HTS Equipment
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