Research at Fox Chase »Research Facilities »Biotechnology

Erica Golemis, Ph.D. 215 728 2860 erica.golemis@fccc.edu West Building W406 Director Margret B. Einarson, Ph.D. 215 728 2542 margret.einarson@fccc.edu West Building W250 Facility Manager Anna Pecherskaya, M.S., anna.pecherskaya@fccc.edu West Building W250 Scientific Assistant Aaron Roberts, B.S. aaron.roberts@fccc.edu West Building W250 Technician Nilanjona Mitra, B.S. nilanjona.mitra@fccc.edu West Building W250 Technician

West Building, Rooms W250 & 251 215-728-3562

Function

This facility assists investigators pursuing translational research projects by offering assay services and high throughput screening instrumentation and reagents. The facility provides support for assay development, screen execution and secondary screening assays.

Reagents available for screening include compound, siRNA, and shRNA libraries. The assay technologies available using the multi-label plate reader include absorbance, fluorescence intensity, time -resolved fluorescence, fluorescence polarization, FRET, and luminescence. High-content screening assays are performed on a Molecular Devices ImageXpress micro automated microscope equipped with a Catalyst robotic arm. This imaging system is supplemented with MetaXpress image analysis software including ten assay platforms (monopole detection, multi-wavelength scoring, cell cycle, transfluor, cell health, live/dead, mitotic index, angiogenesis, count nuclei, and translocation). AcuityXpress Cellular Informatics software allows users to display, analyze and identify potential "hits".

The facility also supports secondary screening utilizing these technologies as well as the Guava EasyCyte cytometer. The EasyCyte is an automated, benchtop single-cell analysis instrument that accommodates both 96-well plates and microfuge tubes. Assays available on the EasyCyte include: ViaCount, ExpressPlus (open-platform, three colors), Nexin, MultiCaspase, TUNEL, MitoPotential, cell cycle, Cell Paint, CellToxicity, and Cell Growth. These assays coupled with primary screening results identify cellular pathways perturbed by the compound or gene-of-interest.

Description

The TRF-HTS facility is located in an approximately 1000 square foot laboratory in the West Building. The high throughput screening room is equipped with instruments for high-precision, low-volume automated liquid handling including a CyBi Well Vario liquid handler equipped with interchangeable 96 and 384 well pipetting heads, a Bio-Tek Precision XS liquid handler equipped with a single probe, eight channel and bulk reagent dispenser, a Thermo Multidrop 384 bulk reagent dispenser, and a BioTek Elx405 96/384 microplate washer. For assay readouts the facility provides the Perkin Elmer Envision plate reader (96/384/1536 plates), the Molecular Devices ImageXpress automated microscope for high-content screening, and the Guava EasyCyte cytometer. Reagents available for screening include a 50,000 diverse compound library (ChemDiv), the ICCB Known Bioactives compound collection (Biomol), a siRNA library targeting 22,000 human genes (ThermoFisher-Dharmacon), and a lentiviral shRNA library directed at the human genome (OPEN Biosystems).