High Throughput Screening
 PDF Brochure
 Launched in fall 2006, IRIC's High Throughput Screening (HTS) Facility aims to be a centre of excellence and innovation in chemical and functional screening. Designed for the use of a variety of biochemical and cell-based assays with different biological systems and models (Drosophila, C. elegans, mammalians, etc.), the facility provides new molecular target identification as well as finding target-specific molecules in support of both fundamental and medicinal research projects.
An agreement has been reached between the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (IRCM), the Université de Montreal's Groupe de recherche universitaire sur le médicament (GRUM) and IRIC, enabling the three institutions to merge their HTS expertise and share their specialized equipment at the new IRIC facility.
As such, the new HTS Facility has been outfitted alongside our genomics centre in a specially designed 1,500ft2 space on the third floor of IRIC's Marcelle-Coutu Pavilion. It serves IRIC and Université de Montréal investigators in the course of their research initiatives. It is also accessible to outside scientists from both academia and industry through collaborative and contract research agreements.
Facility Highlights
Our HTS facility will handle:
- assay optimization and validation
- primary and secondary screening
- throughput of up to 25,000 tests per day
- an expanding chemical compound library with broad base applicability from commercial and internal sources
- data analysis and reporting
Our team is also available to provide guidance concerning most appropriate assay and detection methods, assay optimization and hit confirmation.
Instrumentation
Our screening centre houses state-of-the-art equipment integrated in a fully automated robotic system for increased capacity and throughput:
- Beckman Biomek FX pipettor (96-well head/250µl and Span-8 head)
- two bulk dispensers: Thermo Multidrop 384 and Multidrop Micro 384
- a Biotek ELx405 plate washer (96- and 384-well microplate compatible)
- an automated high capacity CO2 incubator (up to 189 microplate capacity)
- ambient carousel (up to 180 microplate capacity)
- high throughput PCR
- a Perkin-Elmer Envision reader:
- optical density
- luminescence and enhanced luminescence
- fluorescence intensity: normal and time resolved (TRF)
- fluorescence polarization
- FRET, BRET
- AlphaScreen
The facility also uses advanced instruments and methods for semi-automated microscopy-based screens with:
- Zeiss inverted fluorescence microscope equipped with CCD camera and automated X/Y scanning stage
- EMPIX Imaging Northern Eclipse image analysis software
Our high throughput screening system is compatible with 96 and 384 well plate formats.
For more information about IRIC's HTS Facility, please contact:
Jean Duchaine
T + 514 343.6111 ext. 1.0649
jean.duchaine@umontreal.ca
Daniel Lamarre, Ph.D.
T + 514 343.7127
daniel.lamarre@umontreal.ca
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