The core’s expertise applies to all life science disciplines to accelerate research into target and drug discovery phases, identify novel targets within pathways, and drive findings into clinical trials and ultimately therapies for disease.
For project advice, email Anke Meyer-Franke.
For equipment access, email Jane Srivastava.
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From the onset of a project, we take a flexible and collaborative approach. We will work with you directly to develop assays for your project or train you to develop, miniaturize, and optimize assays to be highly reproducible for medium (96-well) to high (384-well) throughput formats.
Our team will assist in the iterative process required to test and optimize assay conditions, and can perform assays for you to save you time. Alternatively, we can train you to independently use plate readers for biochemical assays and use automated high-throughput microscopes for cell-based assays.
The core offers assistance and troubleshooting to automate screening assays that have been tested and validated on a small scale. We use robotic liquid handling systems to automate high-throughput assays and offer a fully bio-annotated library of compounds for screening.
After automation, the core will run a small screen of compounds to validate the newly developed assay. After developing, optimizing, running and validating assays in-house, you can transfer these assays to high-throughput screening facilities (such as the Small Molecule Discovery Center at UC San Francisco) to perform additional screening with larger structurally diverse compound libraries.
All three libraries have been used by others for drug discovery programs. The libraries contain FDA-approved drugs and compounds selected for neuroscience, ion channels, GPCRs, tyrosine kinases, membrane transporter/ion channel, microbiology, virology, immunology, and inflammation. Compounds are structurally diverse, medicinally active, and cell permeable. This library can be used for target and drug discovery, and for repurposing FDA-approved drugs.
EL-406 Liquid Handler
Sector Imager
BioTek Synergy H4
Cellomics Arrayscan XTI
Meso Scale Discovery QuickPlex SQ120
Agilent BRAVO Benchcel system with PlateLoc Thermal Microplate Sealer
BioTek EL406 with plate stacker
BioTek MultiFlo FX in Biosafety cabinet
Molecular Devices ImageXpress Confocal HT.ai High-Content Imaging System
Thermo Scientific CellInsight CX7 Microscope
Agilent BRAVO Benchcel system with PlateLoc Thermal Microplate Sealer
Note: We use it for stamping library daughter plates, adding reagents to 96 or 384-well plates, making serial dilutions and the PlateLoc for thermally sealing microplates.
Dispensing and aspirating liquids into 96 and 384 well plates in sterile environment with 8-channel cassettes
Note: The plate reader is set for colorimetric, fluorescence and Luciferase assays. Fluorescence filters set up for Excitation 486/20, Emission 528/20 and Excitation 540/35, Emission 590/20.
Electrochemiluminescence detection technology
Note: MSD offers assays that have ultra-low detection limits, provide up to five logs of linear dynamic range, use minimal sample and easily handle difficult matrices, including serum, plasma, urine, bronchoalveolar lavage, tissue and cell lysates, cell-supernatants, and CSF. The sensitivity and dynamic range enable the development of assays that can measure native levels of biomarkers in normal and diseased samples without multiple dilutions, saving time, resources, sample, and cost. The multiplex panels allow measurements of up to ten analytes from a single sample, MSD also offers off-the-shelf assays for biomarkers of inflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular and metabolic dysfunction, and infectious diseases.
Applications
Specifications
Notes: For optimal imaging we recommend tissue culture grade black walled plates with thin optical plastic. These plates are available from several companies, such as Corning (Falcon), Greiner, Nunc and Ibidi.
Once an analysis protocol has been set up in HCS Studio, image acquisition and analysis are running simultaneously.
J. K. Ryu, V. A. Rafalski, A. Meyer-Franke, R. A. Adams, S. B. Poda, P. E. Rios Coronado, L. O. Pedersen, V. Menon, K. M. Baeten, S. L. Sikorski, C. Bedard, K. Hanspers, S. Bardehle, A. S. Mendiola, D. Davalos, M. R. Machado, J. P. Chan, I. Plastira, M. A. Petersen, S. J. Pfaff, K. K. Ang, K. K. Hallenbeck, C. Syme, H. Hakozaki, M. H. Ellisman, R. A. Swanson, S. S. Zamvil, M. R. Arkin, S. H. Zorn, A. R. Pico, L. Mucke, S. B. Freedman, J. B. Stavenhagen, R. B. Nelson and K. Akassoglou (2018). Nat Immunol. 19(11), 1212–1223. doi:10.1038/s41590-018-0232-x
M. A. Petersen, J. K. Ryu, K. J. Chang, A. Etxeberria, S. Bardehle, A. S. Mendiola, W. Kamau-Devers, S. P. J. Fancy, A. Thor, E. A. Bushong, B. Baeza-Raja, C. A. Syme, M. D. Wu, P. E. Rios Coronado, A. Meyer-Franke, S. Yahn, L. Pous, J. K. Lee, C. Schachtrup, H. Lassmann, E. J. Huang, M. H. Han, M. Absinta, D. S. Reich, M. H. Ellisman, D. H. Rowitch, J. R. Chan and K. Akassoglou (2017). Neuron. 96(5), 1003–1012 e1007. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2017.10.008
Wang C, Ward ME, Chen R, Liu K, Tracy TE, Chen X, Xie M, Sohn PD, Ludwig C, Meyer-Franke A, Karch CM, Ding S, Gan L. (2017) Stem Cell Reports, 9(4):1221–1233
Ryu JK, Petersen MA, Murray SG, Baeten KM, Meyer-Franke A, Chan JP, Vagena E, Bedard C, Machado MR, Rios Coronado PE, Prod'homme T, Charo IF, Lassmann H, Degen JL, Zamvil SS & Akassoglou K (2015) Nat. Commun. 6:8164
Chen HK, Liu Z, Meyer-Franke A, Brodbeck J, Miranda RD, McGuire JG, Pleiss MA, Ji ZS, Balestra ME, Walker DW, Xu Q, Jeong DE, Budamagunta MS, Voss JC, Freedman SB, Weisgraber KH, Huang Y, Mahley RW (2012) JBC, 287(8):5253-66
Jeff Simms, MA
Linsey Dinh, MA
Research Technologist II
Iris Lo
Associate Core Director
Lane Domke
Research Technologist II
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Senior Investigator Katerina Akassoglou has fundamentally changed the way scientists think of neurological disorders. She made the seminal discovery that blood leaks are toxic to the brain by promoting inflammation and destroying neurons. Her research led the scientific community to reassess the complex relationship between the brain, immune, and vascular systems.
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