RESUMO
As many processes in the preclinical drug discovery process become highly parallel, the need to also produce a large number of different proteins in parallel has become acute, such as for protein crystallization and activity screening. In turn, the requisite DNA constructions to produce these proteins must now be done at a rate that requires automated cloning procedures, each with an intrinsic low failure probability per sample. The high-throughput cloning solutions presented here achieve production of 192 different expression plasmids at a success rate of greater than 95% of the targeted open reading frames. Time for completion of the set by one person is reduced to approximately 11 working days, starting with polymerase chain reactions for a number of source clones and ending with purified expression plasmids. Achievement of this throughput utilizes the following: (1) the Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, CA) Biomek FX liquid handler for most manipulations, (2) Gateway cloning technology (Invitrogen Corp., Carlsbad, CA), and (3) computer programs designed for parallel processing of all sample information, including primer design and the resulting DNA and protein sequence assembly. Exemplary data are presented for discovery of a form of the Rho-kinase that crystallizes (ROCK2).
Assuntos
Clonagem Molecular/métodos , Plasmídeos/metabolismo , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinases/biossíntese , Robótica , Software , Automação , Cristalização , Avaliação Pré-Clínica de Medicamentos/métodos , Peptídeos e Proteínas de Sinalização Intracelular/química , Peptídeos e Proteínas de Sinalização Intracelular/genética , Mutagênese , Plasmídeos/biossíntese , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase , Conformação Proteica , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinases/química , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinases/genética , Proteínas Recombinantes/biossíntese , Proteínas Recombinantes/química , Proteínas Recombinantes/genética , Robótica/instrumentação , Fatores de Tempo , Quinases Associadas a rhoRESUMO
The effective analysis and interpretation of high-content screening (HCS) data requires joining results to information on experimental treatments and controls, normalizing data, and selecting hits or fitting concentration-response curves. HCS data have unique requirements that are not supported by traditional high-throughput screening databases, including the ability to designate separate positive and negative controls for different measurements in multiplexed assays; the ability to capture information on the cell lines, fluorescent reagents, and treatments in each assay; the ability to store and use individual-cell and image data; and the ability to support HCS readers and software from multiple vendors along with third-party image analysis tools. To address these requirements, the authors developed an enterprise system for the storage and processing of HCS images and results. This system, HCS Road, supports target identification, lead discovery, lead evaluation, and lead profiling activities. A dedicated client supports experimental design, data review, and core analyses and displays images together with results for assay development, hit assessment, and troubleshooting. Data can be exported to third-party applications for further analysis and exploration. HCS Road provides a single source for high-content results across the organization, regardless of the group or instrument that produced them.