Molecular Screening Shared Resource

Overview

The Molecular Screening Shared Resource (MSSR) at the provides transformative drug discovery services to academic researchers and industry professionals. MSSR follows an Open Access Policy and is open to all research labs on campus and outside entities.

The MSSR offers a comprehensive array of high throughput screening (HTS) services as well as functional and chemical genetic libraries enabling investigators to discover new molecular targets, find small and large molecule drugs for these targets, and characterize and optimize candidate molecules in preparation for clinical assessments.

Contact

Email: rdamoiseaux@mednet.ucla.edu

Phone: 310-794-1974 

Website: Molecular Screening Shared Resource

Services

Brief

The MSSR provides advanced, innovative instrumentation and services for the discovery and translation of small and large molecules into clinical candidates. MSSR services cover drug and target discovery, reagent and cell line generation as well as pre-clinical characterization of small and large molecules. With six integrated robotic screening systems, the MSSR has an industrial infrastructure that enables assay development and screening services.

Please do not let the cost of screening deter you from discussing your assay and interest with MSSR personnel. Limited funds may be available for proposed screens. A consultation is always free of charge as a courtesy to our drug discovery community.

To find out more about services at MSSR, visit our website or contact us for a consultation.

High-Throughput Screening (HTS)

The Molecular Screening Shared Resource (MSSR) offers state-of-the-art high throughput screening (HTS) capabilities powered by six integrated robotic systems capable .

The facility boasts high-throughput screening systems through confocal (ImageXpressConfocal), widefield (ImageXpressXL), and laser scanning (Acumen Explorer) plate reading platforms supporting diverse readouts including fluorescence, luminescence, time-resolved fluorescence, fluorescence polarization, and AlphaScreen, along with kinetic GPCR assays for calcium and cAMP flux.

For details on HTS and other services offered at MSSR, please visit our website.

Libraries

Chemical Libraries

The MSSR hosts compound libraries of over 300,000 molecules an updated in-house deck of over 300K extremely well curated compounds in plate formats up to 1536 with readouts ranging from any plate reader-based readout to confocal high content screening. 

Functional Genetic Libraries

The MSSR offers Functional genomics libraries including covering human and mouse genomes with various capabilities such as human genome arrayed CRISPR, siRNA, shRNA, and cDNA. These libraries include many specialized sub-libraries for different target pathways and drug categories. For details on libraries offered at MSSR, please visit our website

Equipment 

Liquid Handlers

Multidrop384 (Thermo LabSystems): manifold liquid dispensing. This instrument is useful for accurately delivering a fixed amount of liquid rapidly (about 25 seconds) into either 96 or 384 well plates and plating of cells.

ELx 405 plate washer (BioTek): well washing, aspiration, dispensing. This instrument would be useful in performing assays which require multi-step aspiration from and dispensing into wells

ELx 406 plate washer (BioTek): Dual Syring pump, peristaltic pump, 96, 384 and 1536 well washing, aspiration, dispensing. This instrument would be useful in performing assays which require multi-step aspiration from and dispensing of reagents into wells

Echo 555 (Beckman Coulter): Acoustic dispensing system used for 384 to 384 and 1536 to 1536 dispensing of any well to any well in any volume. Mostly used for the generation of primary assay plates and dose response plates, the system is also capable of setting up cloning, qPCR and re-arraying experiments. It is extremely fast and accurate to 2.5 nL volumes.

Aquamax (Molecular Devices): Liquid handling system that integrates four-fluid dispensing and washing for 96, 384, amd 1536 well washing.

Mantis (Formulatrix): Low dead-volume, non-contact liquid dispenser that can up to six reagents that allows dispensing complex plates and assay development experiments down to 100nL volumes.

Precision 2000 (BioTek): A 12 channel liquid handler (Bio-Tek) which can be used in a sterile bench and addresses 96 and 384 well plates.

EL 406 (BioTek): well washing, aspiration, dispensing. This instrument would be useful in performing assays which require multi-step aspiration from and dispensing into wells. It is also equiped with dual syringe dispensers as well as a peristaltic pump for reagent addition.

Agilent Bravo (Agilent): Pipettor for 96,384 and 1536 well plates.

Biomek FxP (Beckman): Pipettor for 96,384 and 1536 well plates, useful for cherry picking, re-arraying etc. We have three systems available for use.

Plate Readers

Acumen Explorer(TTP Labtech): This laser scanning cytometer is currently the fastest high content screening system available. It enables cell-by-cell readouts resulting in a flow-cytometer like data structure useful for phenotypic screening. Examples are screens based on translocation events from the nucleus to the cytosol, cytotoxicity screens and even cell cycle based screening is possible.

ImageXpress (Molecular Devices) XL: A high throughput epifluorescence microscope which can be used for phenotypic screens requiring the highest quality images such as neurite outgrowth, translocation and certain cell toxicity screens. We have a phase contrast option enabling label free phenotypic screening of zebrafish. Using special objectives and analysis modules, even difficult phenotypes such as the of uptake of bacteria by mammalian cells can be quantified. This system is integrated with an incubator using a custom Denso robotic arm.

ImageXpress Confocal (Molecular Devices) I and II: A high throughput spinning disk microscope that also doubles as wide field microscope and can be used for phenotypic screens requiring optical sectioning, subcellular localization, mitochondrial morphology evaluation and other demanding applications. We have over 750TB storage capacity integrated and high speed data analysis capabilities as well as custom module editor software to simplify complex analysis workflows.  We have specialized water optics that enable imaging or organoids, optical sectioning of 3D structures and live cell imaging at 37°C.

Envision (Perkin Elmer): High speed plate reader for 96 or 384 and 1536 well plates in the following modes: UV-VIS absorbance, luminescence, fluorescence polarization, fluorescence, time resolved fluorescence assay as well as alpha screening. We have two systems available.

Flex Station III (Molecular Devices): 96 and 384 well plate reader. GPCR and ion channel assays and general fluorescence applications.

Victor 3V (Perkin Elmer): 96 or 384 and 1536 well : UV-VIS absorbance, luminescence, fluorescence polarization, luorescence, time resolved fluorescence assay

Other 

Biosorter (Union Biometrica): The BioSorter® is a continuous flow system capable of analyzing, sorting and dispensing objects ranging in size from 10 to 1,500 µm. It is useful for sorting zebrafish, C.Elegans, organoids, spheroids and other large objects based on either fluorescence or backscatter/size. Moreover, the MSSR has fitted this biosorter with an in house built aerosol management system that enables us to sort live particles into 96 or even 384 well plates and we can define the number of objects and characteristics of the objects on a per well level enabling screening of large biological objects with defined parameters.

Q-Bot (Genetix): Colony picker and arrayer (Genetix). This instrument has a 72 plate capacity and is used in high-throughput sequencing projects as well as for library construction and maintenance. It uses 96 and 384 well plates, omni-trays and is equipped with a video camera for automated colony recognition and blue-white screening.

BioMek FX (Beckman Coulter): Liquid handler for compound transfer and cherry picking. It is equipped with a custom built pin tool and transfers 384 compounds in 85 seconds.

Prices