Automated liquid handling workstation

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 553753341

Chemical compound screening is central to inhibitor development and chemical biology, and it is a limiting step in academic drug discovery research. Significant developments in instrumentation have dramatically increased the throughput of small molecule screening in recent years. Major developments have been made in innovative liquid handling technologies, which not only enable faster generation of assay data, but also provide more accurate results than traditional pipetting methods. In addition, very small volumes, such as 2-10 nL can be transferred, enabling a high degree of miniaturization, significant reagent savings and minimization of waste. Acoustic liquid handling technology has a fundamental impact on the accuracy, reproducibility and throughput, which offers significant potential for innovation that cannot be achieved with traditional pipetting methods. The development of new therapeutic concepts and innovative drugs is one of the main focuses of the Goethe University Frankfurt and networks within the framework of RMU (Rheine-Main University). The profile area Molecular & Translational Medicine is characterized by a close connection between basic research and clinical application from the perspective of translational research and reverse translation. One of the lighthouse projects in the area of drug development is the international Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) a not-for-profit public-private partnership which facilitates the discovery of new medicines. The SGC is committed to Open Science, sharing data and reagents, which has led to a network of more than 250 international partners. The SGC is integrated into the Innovative Medicines Initiative funded project EUbOPEN, which aims to generate an open access library of several thousands of well-annotated pharmacological modulators for 1,000 proteins. Compound libraries assembled in this project are distributed to researchers worldwide to be tested in innovative cell-based disease models. In the recently funded project TACTIC from the German Cancer aid we will develop novel modulators of transcriptional regulators, forming a national drug discovery hub in oncology. Local network projects, such as the LOEWE funded Frankfurt Cancer Institute are already using the compound libraries in functional and in patient derived cell assays. These test systems are highly sensitive to high solvent concentrations. Therefore, compounds must be transferred to high density assay plates as concentrated solutions. The transferred volumes of nL size droplets can only be pipetted acoustically. To facilitate compound screening in academia, our laboratory distributed more than 20,000 compounds worldwide in the last 4 years, resulting in a large number of joint high-impact publications as well as new insights into the role of the screened targets in diverse diseases. In order to continue to support these important projects and networks an automated version of an acoustic dispensing system will be required.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Automatisierte Liquid-Handling-Workstation
• Instrumentation Group: 1060 Dilutoren, Pipettiergeräte, Probennehmer
• Applicant Institution: Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
• Leader: Professor Dr. Stefan Knapp