Abstract

High
throughput screening (HTS) technologies play an essential role in drug
discovery and development. Combining HTS with multiplexing is valuable for
accelerating screening processes, but technically challenging and
preventatively expensive due to the high cost of required committed
instrumentation for closed multiplex systems. Here we describe a new assay
platform - FirePlex-384®, which employs data high content imaging (HCI), HTS
and multiplexing to harvest data at an unprecedented scale, informing better
decisions and accelerating drug discovery. Utilizing patented FirePlex hydrogel
particles and a three-region encoding design, FirePlex Immunoassays enable
true, in-well multiplexing, providing flexible and customizable quantitation of
analytes using established HCI instrumentation. FirePlex®-384 immunoassays
quantitate up to 10 protein analytes per well from low sample inputs, in
384-well plate format. The optional two-step workflow or no-wash assay formats
limit hands-on time and are compatible with high-throughput automation. Assay
data-acquisition is conducted on standard high-content imagers, and data
analysis is achieved with the FirePlex® Analysis Workbench software,
eliminating the need for dedicated instrumentation and expensive software
licenses.  By generating more actionable
data during early compound screening, FirePlex-384 promptly identifies
compounds with the desired activity profile and guides the elimination of
compounds with off-target effects early on, thus reducing the number of
compounds that will move forward to expensive secondary screens.