High-Throughput Drug Screening Facility -- Core Facility

Enlarge Image Xanthus the Robot

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has implemented the creation of a state-of-the-art High-Throughput Screening Core Facility with modern robotics and custom-built screening data management databases for storing and querying data obtained from screening.

Since opening its doors in the Summer of 2004, the mission of the facility has to provide investigators with access to cost-effective high-throughput screening of both small molecules (Chemical Scanning) and RNAi (Gene Scanning) libraries.

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Chemical Scanning (ChemScan^®) allows for the rapid identification of biologically active chemical scaffolds from libraries containing several thousand discrete chemicals. The SKI library also contains naturally occurring chemical scaffolds obtained from sources such as plants, micro-organisms, fungi, and deep sea algae. The core has set up several strategic collaborations with industry for the supply of chemicals and to provide expertise in medicinal chemistry optimization. Our current compound collaborators include ChemBridge Research Laboratories (USA), Specs (Holland), AnalytiCon Discovery (Germany), MicroSource (USA), BioFocus (UK), Magellan BioScience Group (USA), and Prestwick Chemical (France).

Enlarge Image HTS Data Servers at the NJDC

Gene Scanning (GeneScan^®) allows for the identification of a gene or genes involved in any given cellular pathway (signal transduction; apoptosis; inflammation) through their silencing using RNA interference technology from libraries containing several thousand short duplex RNA oligos named siRNA, and currently targeting up to 5,000 Human genes. Investigators can also request siRNAs targeting their gene of interest through our recently launched internal Web site.

Facility staff members work closely with each investigator through all stages of assay development, optimization, automation, and screening. We also provide an opportunity for students and postdoctoral research fellows to gain experience and training in high-throughput screening at the facility.

Principal investigators and Lab Heads are encouraged to direct their inquiries to the facility director for consideration and evaluation of the technical feasibility of their proposed projects. We generally require a charge-back arrangement for consultations, consumables, and equipment usage. All projects will be considered on a case-by-case basis, following preliminary evaluation for suitability and amenability to screening. Then the Prioritization Committee will further review and assess technical difficulties and determine priorities for all incoming core-related projects.