Multimode High-Throughput Screening Microplate Reader

About This Grant

Project Summary/Abstract The Center for Chemical Genomics (CCG) at the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) serves as the high throughput screening core facility, available to all faculty at the University of Michigan (U-M) and seeks funding to support the purchase of a new microplate reader, the PHERAstar FSX. The current instruments, a 17-year- old Perkin Elmer EnVision 2104 and a 21-year-old PHERAstar, have each reached the end of their operational lifespan and manufacturer support is being terminated. Given that these microplate readers are used to support approximately 90% of the screening experiments that the CCG performs, they are critical to the continuation of CCG services, and failure to obtain a replacement option for these aging machines will dramatically impact the early phase drug discovery program at U-M. The PHERAstar FSX is the ideal replacement due to its state-of-the-art capabilities, enabling the CCG to conduct a comprehensive array of experiments as requested by U-M faculty, as well as researchers external to U-M. The CCG is a critical component of both basic research and the early-phase drug discovery pipeline at U-M. It conducts approximately 20 high-throughput screening (HTS) campaigns, as well as supporting ~3-5 Structural-Activity Relationship (SAR) campaigns, annually. Despite advances in computational approaches, HTS of large chemical libraries, consisting of over 100,000 samples, remains the most commonly employed method for identifying novel compounds that modulate the activity of a target protein. This “unbiased” screening approach is used to identify active molecules that can be optimized for use as in vitro or in vivo research tools, and/or as potential drug leads. The vast majority of HTS assays are designed to utilize some form of fluorescence or luminescence as the final readout, as this approach can yield HTS assays that are both robust and cost-effective. The CCG’s microplate readers are essential for conducting these HTS assays. The CCG supports NIH projects for U-M researchers and external collaborators across an incredible breadth of research fields, including research on cancer, cardiomyopathy, nicotine and opioid addiction, and drug metabolism. The university is a national leader in academic drug discovery, demonstrated by its 15 drugs in current clinical development. The initial identification of candidate drugs is a vital part of this pipeline and aligns with the mission of the NIH and U-M’s overarching goal of improving public health. Replacing the dated microplate readers in the CCG with the PHERAstar FSX will ensure the continuation of CCG support for groundbreaking drug discovery research at the University of Michigan.