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High throughput screening and High content analysis core

IMTM’s high throughput screening and high content analysis platform is one of the largest academic installations worldwide and provides screening and high volume biology data on a broad diversity of assays and detection systems. Our HTS platform is industry strong, modular and flexible, and allows testing in BSL3 and BSL2+ environment, screening in combination with ionizing radiation (X-rays), mass spectrometry, high content analysis and others. The screening assays provide leads for downstream drug research and development.

Equipment:

The HTS/HCA screening platform is based on a state-of-art robotic system provided by HighResBiosolutions Ltd. The system consists of three robotic arms, automatic incubators, liquid handlers for microliter and nanoliter volumes, sealers, de-sealers, centrifuges and readers for fluorescence, luminescence, absorbance and ionizing radiation. Also integrated with the system are wide-field or spinning disc confocal microscopes (Operetta, Yokogawa CV7000) equipped with software tools for image analysis and data evaluation. A critical part of the robotic system is the automatized chemical library, which contains more than 110 000 compounds.

 

Our tests focus on:

  •  cytotoxicity (non/cancer, resistant cell lines)
  •  primary human normal and diseased cells
  •  cell cycle analysis (fixed and live cells)
  •  phenotypic screens using HCA
  •  cytoskeleton modulation/integrity
  •  DNA, RNA, protein synthesis
  •  DNA damage/repair activity, screening in combination with X-ray radiation
  •  Protein-protein and protein-nucleic acids interactions
  •  adenosine receptor activity
  •  mapping the most significant signaling pathways (eg. Hedgehog, Wnt, p53, KRAS, RAGE) via phosphorylation and reporter assays
  •  custom made biochemical tests
  •  antimicrobial activity in G+/G- strains including drug resistant bacteria, mycobacterium strains, yeasts, filamentous fungi, viruses and parasites under BSL2 and BSL3 conditions
  • Cellular 3D culture models (cytotoxicity, reporter studies, etc.)

 

Academic and commercial offer:

Collaborative and contractual R&D projects in the field of uHTS/HCA and chemical biology/genetics.

Tests of biological activities of small molecules.

 

 

Head of the facility

Soňa Gurská

 

Bioinformatics

Jiří Voller

Miroslav Hruška