High-density well plates

Functional High-Density Well Plates for High-Throughput Assays... 

The precision values obtained for the 5 J,L aliquots indicate an extremely small well-to-well variability for the optical readout and an excellent optical quality of the transparent well bottom of high-density view plates. The somewhat higher well-to-well variability obtained for readout of assay volumes in the submicroliter volume range is not determined by the readout process or by the well-to-well variability of the plate, it is mainly determined by the precision of liquid handling. 

A consistent problem with high-throughput screens that rely on high-density multiwell plates is known as an edge effect. This effect is associated with a frequency of outlier results from cells evaluated in wells found on the edge of the plate that is higher than that observed from the remaining wells. To limit the contribution of this phenomenon to the overall selection of hits from a screen, a number of computational approaches can be taken see [7] for example). 

The peptides were synthesized as large spots (diameter about 0.6 cm) at high density, which can reach up to 1.9 fimol/cm2 (32). About 1000 peptides were synthesized per 20 x 29 cm cellulose sheet. After the final side-chain deprotection step, the membrane was washed and the peptides were cleaved from the membrane (33). At this point, the peptides still remain adsorbed onto the membrane but will dissolve once a liquid is added. The peptides were then punched out with a normal single-hole puncher, and the spots were transferred into a 96-well microtiter plate. Distilled water was added in each well to dissolve the peptides. 

Recently (2004), Applied Biosystems have introduced microfluidics cards or low-density gene expression arrays. These cards follow the main Taqman principles, but are based on a 384-well plate design. Therefore, multiple samples and genes can be monitored, quantitatively, at the same time. Maley et al. (2004) have also reported the use of a multiplexed Taqman model for high throughput screening applications. 

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