Innovative Screening Tools Accelerate Drug Discovery

Exclusively available in the UK from Cambio, Transcreener® HTS Assays and iuvo Microconduit array technology meet a demand for high performance tools which will speed discovery of new therapies.

Dedicated to providing the pharmaceutical industry with more effective screening tools, BellBrook Labs developed the proprietary Transcreener® assays, which use no radioactive compounds. This high throughput biochemical assay platform is now one of the most extensively validated methods for screening drug targets such as protein kinases, as well as other nucleotide-dependent enzymes targeted for therapeutic intervention. Glycosyltransferase assays are available together with methyltransferase assays for investigators studying epigenetic regulation.

Cambio offers Transcreener® ADP2, AMP/GMP, GDP and UDP Assays for direct detection of nucleotide enzyme products with far red, FI, FP and TR-FRET readouts. These four HTS assays cover thousands of target enzymes, including any kinase, ATPase or GTPase. The Transcreener® concept is based on single-step, homogenous fluorescence assays providing sensitive detection and proven performance.

Also available from Cambio, BellBrook’s iuvo Microconduit Arrays take a completely different approach: enabling the use of highly miniaturised, advanced cell models and functional assays which more accurately replicate in vivo processes.

The iuvo platform utilises surface tension effects inside different sized droplets. Liquid within a specially designed microchannel connecting two drops is replaced by liquid from the smaller drop through passive pumping – a phenomenon ideally suited to gentle washing of cells. This technology combines the benefits of microfluidics with the advantages of normal pipetting techniques, simplifying work with primary cells, 3D matrices and co-culture, as well as reducing dilution of secreted signalling molecules. The microchannel environment within iuvo plates facilitates the use of automated liquid handling in addition to microscope-based HCA instruments and plate scanners.

The iuvo 3D Slide Device incorporates the unique 3D cellular assay capabilities of iuvo Microconduit Array plates into a lower throughput design that can be used with any inverted microscope. Applications include cell viability, cell motility and cell differentiation assays using immunocytostaining and live cell assay staining techniques.