2.3 Compound
Dispensers
for Assay-Ready Plate
Production
In HTS at AstraZeneca, we use Echo
® 555 acoustic dispensers
(Labcyte, CA, USA) to dispense nanoliter volumes of compounds
into plates. Alternatives to this include ATS (EDC Biosystems, CA,
USA), which also uses acoustic-based dispensing, or the Mosquito
(TTP, UK), which uses tip-based dispensing.
2.4 High-Throughput
Platform
2.4.1 Assay Plate
Production
Multidrop™ Combi reagent dispensers (Fisher Thermo Scientific
UK Ltd., Loughborough, UK) have been used for these assays on
Agilent Biocel automation platforms (Santa Clara, California,
USA). Certus Flex dispensers (Fritz Gyger, Gwatt, Switzerland)
have also been tested to allow flexibility for transfer between the
available automation (see Note 2).
2.4.2 Assay Plate Read
To allow integration of the plate production and read process, the
commercial instrument will be compatible with the Access™ Laboratory Workstation and the Access™ Dual Robot System (Labcyte). This will allow automation of the movement of plates to the
read position.
2.5 Buffers/
Reagents
1. Assay buffer: A simple biochemical assay buffer that is suitable
for both maintaining the activity of the target enzyme and
supporting the electrospray process should be selected (see
Note 3). Buffers that have been shown to be effective for
Fig. 1 Setup of the prototype instrument showing the acoustic transducer sitting
below the plate stage, which sprays a droplet mist of the contents of the assay
well into a transfer tube, which leads directly to the TOF MS
Mass Spectrometry for High-Throughput Screening
219
Dispensers
for Assay-Ready Plate
Production
In HTS at AstraZeneca, we use Echo
® 555 acoustic dispensers
(Labcyte, CA, USA) to dispense nanoliter volumes of compounds
into plates. Alternatives to this include ATS (EDC Biosystems, CA,
USA), which also uses acoustic-based dispensing, or the Mosquito
(TTP, UK), which uses tip-based dispensing.
2.4 High-Throughput
Platform
2.4.1 Assay Plate
Production
Multidrop™ Combi reagent dispensers (Fisher Thermo Scientific
UK Ltd., Loughborough, UK) have been used for these assays on
Agilent Biocel automation platforms (Santa Clara, California,
USA). Certus Flex dispensers (Fritz Gyger, Gwatt, Switzerland)
have also been tested to allow flexibility for transfer between the
available automation (see Note 2).
2.4.2 Assay Plate Read
To allow integration of the plate production and read process, the
commercial instrument will be compatible with the Access™ Laboratory Workstation and the Access™ Dual Robot System (Labcyte). This will allow automation of the movement of plates to the
read position.
2.5 Buffers/
Reagents
1. Assay buffer: A simple biochemical assay buffer that is suitable
for both maintaining the activity of the target enzyme and
supporting the electrospray process should be selected (see
Note 3). Buffers that have been shown to be effective for
Fig. 1 Setup of the prototype instrument showing the acoustic transducer sitting
below the plate stage, which sprays a droplet mist of the contents of the assay
well into a transfer tube, which leads directly to the TOF MS
Mass Spectrometry for High-Throughput Screening
219