Latest Posters

For improved screening capability, we have developed a cell cycle analysis method using an Acumen Explorer fluorescence microplate cytometer, capable of reading an entire 384 well microplate in about 10 minutes. The method can perform such analyses on fixed cells in situ, markedly simplifying sample preparation.

Here, laser scanning microplate cytometry has been used to provide an automated high content readout of the effects of cytostatic agents on colony formation. This approach determines colony number through the application of a spherical volume algorithm. This permits the differentiation of cytostatic effects where the number of colonies and size remains constant and cytotoxic effects where the size and number may be reduced.

High reagent costs associated with molecular biology assays are driving trends toward continued volume reduction and parallelization of assays. Several robotic pipettors are available for small-volume, multi-well pipetting, but suffer from some disadvantages. We present two projects to address some of the drawbacks.

A few years ago the first multi-component synthesis of N-(1 -haloalkyl) pyridinium halides from a thionyl halide, pyridine, and an aldehyde was described. Since that time, we have widely demonstrated that such salts can be considered as valuable synthetic equivalents of the starting aldehydes for the preparation of various classes of nitrogen heterocycles.

The data shown demonstrates that assay integrity is maintained when dispensing nanoliter volumes to 1536 well plates. Significant savings in reagent and assay costs can be realised from assay miniaturisation with the additional advantage of getting more assays and data from compound stocks before depletion.

The comPOUND® sample store (TTP LabTech) is a modular and flexible system that can be installed almost anywhere. This fully scaleable approach to compound storage also allows sample throughputs to increase with the library size to match process needs.

The mosquito® X1 offers precision sampling of any individual well in 48-, 96-, 384- or 1536-well plates. This enables researchers to quickly select small volumes of “hits” from primary screening plates and transfer them directly to the next screening stage without further dilution. mosquito® X1's disposable pipette tips guarantee zero cross-contamination.

The aim of this project was to develop high throughput screening methods using an IMSTAR Pathfinder™ High-content imaging platform to support the analyses of polymeric materials synthesised using a parallel approach. This was achieved by developing arrays of polymeric materials.

Our group studied several inducers of erythroid differentiation. In the present study we demonstrate that rapamycin induces an increase of HbFproduction in erythroid precursors. This compound is able to increase gammaglobin gene expression in stem cells from blood of normal subjects as well asbeta-thalassemia patients.

Mosquito’s unique positive displacement disposable tips and precise X, Y and Z movements allow smaller drops with accurate and repeatable volumes to be positioned very precisely. This ability is essential for successful assay miniaturisation and the set-up of more effective serial dilutions or protein crystallography screens.