Araceli Biosciences (1) in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology Compound Management and Screening Center (2)
Authors: Amanda Clement¹, Katrin Geschwendt¹, and Paul Carman¹ and Sonja Sievers²
Summary and Impact
The Compound Management and Screening Center (COMAS) has been implemented at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund as the central substance library of the Max Planck Society.
COMAS major research goal is to identify bioactive compounds as modulators of biological functions by using biochemical and cell-based high-throughput assays. Especially Phenotypic cellular assays hold great promise in identifying bioactive molecules from large compound collections. Furthermore, this approach should facilitate more translational investigation of primary- and patient-derived organoid tumors.
The speed at which you can deliver high content results is currently limited by the speed at which you can acquire plates.
Using the new Araceli Endeavor® we were able to complete the scan of forty-one 384well Cell Paint Assay plates (2.4×2.4mm) in four fluorescence channels at 0.27µm resolution in 7 hours.
In comparison to the currently implemented High Content Imager this results in an 94.9% reduction of the time used for image acquisition at similar resolution and well coverage. Endeavor’s optimized autofocus is an important factor contributing to observed speed. During the batch run it showed 0.2% out of focus wells originating from dirt on the plate bottom or dust in the respective well.
Adding Transmitted light as fifth channel increased acquisition time only about 14% for the 2.4×2.4mm scan of the 384 well plate.
Comparison of nuclei counts with Araceli´s analysis software Voyager and Cell profiler confirms accuracy of image acquisition. Prospectively, Araceli Bioscience targets to develop Voyager as a faster alternative to currently available analysis software, so the speed advantage of image acquisition will be fully realized in the end to end workflow.