Improving the Validity of High Throughput Screening Assays

Artel is launching the first in a new line of 100% DMSO-based Sample Solutions for use with the MVS® Multichannel Verification System. These will provide users with the ability to measure the accuracy and precision of volumes of DMSO dispensed into microwell plates. The first in the new line of DMSO solutions dramatically simplifies the volume verification process for users of sub-microliter liquid handling instruments, and will help them ensure the validity of their high-throughput screening (HTS) assay results.

Research by North Carolina State University’s Dr. Nathaniel Hentz has shown that the volumes dispensed during drug screening programs can have a significant effect on the results obtained by assay screens. Any error made during these deliveries affects the concentration of the drug candidate and can lead to misleading data about compound activity being generated. Because DMSO has very different physical properties than water it behaves differently when handled by air-displacement pipettors or acoustic droplet ejectors, creating the need for a solvent- specific volume verification method such as that provided by the new DMSO Range E Solution for the MVS.

Celgene’s Jason Haelewyn, a long-time user of the MVS, has been waiting expectantly for this product to be released: “Our laboratory has used the Artel MVS for the last five years to validate volume transfers for our automated liquid handling devices. While the MVS has proved valuable as an easy to use aqueous liquid volume validation, most of our liquid transfers involve moving our compound library which is solvated in DMSO. We are eagerly looking forward to the new DMSO-based Sample Solutions to make it even easier to validate the liquid transfers of DMSO solutions on our systems.”

During HTS experiments, many transfers of potential new drug candidates are delivered as DMSO solutions using acoustic droplet ejection instruments which have helped miniaturize assays (and their associated costs) due to their ability to deliver sub-microliter volumes. In addition, the dissolution of compounds into DMSO, and preparation of source plates are often performed using air displacement pipettors. The performance of all these liquid handling instruments, along with pin tools, can be validated using the new DMSO solution.

“We have worked hard to develop this ready-to-use DMSO-based solution to help our customers have confidence in the results of their high throughput drug screening campaigns,” said Tanya Knaide, MVS Product Manager at Artel. “This first product has been designed to meet the automated liquid handling performance measurement needs for those customers using sub-microliter dispensing technologies, and provides them the ability to standardize their liquid handlers using a DMSO-based solution.”