Assay Development & Screening

Whether you’re starting from a unique target or conducting ongoing lead discovery programs, we deliver custom assay development, screening, potency and selectivity testing services for the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and agrochemical industries.

You can access our expert services as stand-alone solutions or integrated with our full range of chemistry offerings.

When you partner with us, our team will develop robust, tailored assay solutions to support your drug discovery program and give your project the best chance of success.

Assay Development

Our assay design and development services include:

• Gathering your assay design requirements and objectives, whether you’re bringing in your established assay protocol or we are starting de novo.
• Recommending assay technologies and solutions as may be required and reducing them to practice.
• Documenting assay procedures, specifications and results, including providing raw data and key assay performance data as may be desired.
• Transferring customer-developed assays to Curia equipment, where applicable.
• Optimizing and validating assays for sensitive and accurate quantitation of bioactivity or inhibition via the desired mechanism of action.
• Compound test cascade design and execution in support of hit prioritization, hit-to-lead optimization or lead optimization.

We configure each assay using our specialized, technologically-advanced equipment, such as:

• Revvity EnVision™ multimode plate reader for fast high-throughput screening (HTS), minimal downtime and sensitive results (low detection levels).
• Revvity Opera Phenix™ and Opera Phenix™ Plus high-content imaging systems for sensitive, high throughput, phenotypic screening and for multi-parametric cellular assays modeling complex disease.
• Label-free technologies including Cytiva Biacore™ T200/8K surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for direct binding and biomolecular complex interactions, Agilent RapidFire™ SPE-MS/MS high-throughput mass spectrometry and high throughput co-crystallization.

Screening

We deliver world-class high-throughput screening (HTS) services. Our capabilities include compound and sample management, conventional and next-generation HTS and access to state-of-the-art equipment for compound transfers (Labcyte and Beckman Echo™ systems) and assay readout.

Collaborate with our team and we’ll quickly and cost-effectively identify molecules from our screening collection or yours with the desired mechanism of action for advancement into hit-to-lead optimization.

Compound and Sample Management

• 600,000 small molecule library available for HTS; Comprehensive hit-picking and reformatting automation.
• Sample inventory management including compound tracking and ELN.
• 9,000-cubic-feet, controlled-environment storage (cold or under nitrogen).

Conventional and Next-Generation High-Throughput Screening (HTS)

We provide cell-based, biochemical and biophysical screening using all common detection methods. Our instrumentation enables the development of new and unique screens, massive automated throughput and analysis of big data (image data, imaging by mass spectrometry data and quantitative fingerprinting by mass spectrometry data) at high-throughput rates.

Our advanced technologies and capabilities for assay development and screening include, but are not limited to the following instrumentation:

• Revvity Opera Phenix™ and Opera Phenix™ Plus high-content imaging systems.
• Revvity Signals Image Artist™ high-content image analysis and storage database system.
• Revvity Signals™ and Spotfire^® for improved data mining and visualization capabilities.
• Labcyte Echo™ 555 and Beckman Echo™ 655 contact-free sample transfer systems.
• Essen BioScience IncuCyte^® ZOOM™ and Sartorius^® Incucyte^® S3 live-cell imaging systems.
• Revvity EnVision™ multimode readers, delivering up to 160,000 data points per day.
• Molecular Devices SpectraMax i3 multimode reader.
• Molecular Devices FLIPR^® system.
• High-resolution and next-generation mass spectrometers for LC/MS/MS, including SCIEX™ ABI4500 QTRAP™, SCIEX™ 6600 TripleTOF™ and Thermo Orbitrap Exploris 240™ with Easy nLC 1200™, Proteome Discoverer™ (proteomics analysis) and Compound Discoverer™ (metabolomics analysis).
• Agilent RapidFire™ SPE-MS/MS systems with Agilent 6495 QQQ detectors.
• High-throughput, high-content image analysis (including cell painting-based assay) with multiparametric statistical analysis of screening data.
• Multiple work stations for compound management and work-station-based high-throughput screening, including Tecan EVO™ and Revvity Janus™ sample transfer systems and Thermo Multidrop™ Combis and Certus Flex™ bulk reagent dispensers.