Robotics screening, robotic

If small or medium libraries for lead optimization are demanded and all synthetic products are to be screened individually, most often parallel synthesis is the method of choice. Parallel syntheses can be conducted in solution, on solid phase, with polymer-assisted solution phase syntheses or with a combination of several of these methods. Preferably, parallel syntheses are automated, either employing integrated synthesis robots or by automation of single steps such as washing, isolation, or identification. The latter concept often allows a more flexible and less expensive automation of parallel synthesis. 

A regularly formed crystal of reasonable size (typically >500 pm in each dimension) is required for X-ray diffraction. Samples of pure protein are screened against a matrix of buffers, additives, or precipitants for conditions under which they form crystals. This can require many thousands of trials and has benefited from increased automation over the past five years. Most large crystallographic laboratories now have robotics systems, and the most sophisticated also automate the visualization of the crystallization experiments, to monitor the appearance of crystalline material. Such developments [e.g., Ref. 1] are adding computer visualization and pattern recognition to the informatics requirements. 

Saunders, K. Automation and robotics in ADME screening. Drug Discov. Today Technol. 2004, 1, 373-380. 

Directed evolution relies on the analysis of large numbers of clones to enable the discovery of rare variants with unproved function. In order to analyze these large libraries, methods of screening or selection have been developed, many of which use specialized equipment or automation. These range from the use of multichannel pipettes, all the way up to robotics, depending on the level of investment [59]. Specialized robotic systems are available to perform tasks such as colony picking, cell culture, protein purification, and cell-based assays. 

However, many recent instruments are still not considered satisfactory, since professional developers in the field of high-throughput screening (HTS) want to use the full performance of the latest generation of robots and computers for automation. This results in new instrumental developments, like the possibility of reading not only 96, but 384 or even 1536 wells plates as well as DNA chips, very rapidly (in a minute or so) and repeatedly without any mechanical failures. Hence, in the eyes of company scientists developing new assays, many present-day instruments still correspond to an intermediate stage of development. For research laboratory scientists, on the other hand, the actual equipment offers excellent performance. 

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