Assay Implementation
Once an assay submitted through PAR-05-147 is assigned to SRMLSC, scientists within the Assay Implementation team will work closely with the assay provider to reproduce, validate, and miniaturize the assay. The assay may also be optimized to improve biological or target selectivity. Assay providers are encouraged to contact a screening center as early as possible and actively collaborate throughout the entire process from assay development to probe optimization, which may also involve screening in secondary assays.
Assay Implementation Capabilities:
- Expertise in cell biology, molecular biology, enzymology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and microbiology.
- Equipment and expertise for maintenance, quality control and molecular characterization of normal and engineered cells for cell-based assays under standard sterile conditions or biosafety containment up to and including BSL-3.
- Access to cell bank of over 300 cell lines in house. Cell culture quality control using flow cytometric and morphological analyses.
- Facilities for propagation of bacteria, yeast, and viruses for assay implementation and development.
- Facilities for expression and purification of recombinant proteins.
- Experience with a large variety of biochemical, cellular, immunological, and image based assays using an array of equipment compatible with bench scale or HTS scale experiments including:
- Microplate readers compatible with absorbance, fluorescence-intensity or polarization, time-resolved fluorescence, luminescence, alpha-screen, and radioisotopic labels.
- Light and fluorescence inverted microscopes.
- Flow cytometer for cell viability, surface marker expression, cell cycle distribution, and other flow cytometry based assays
