Tag: <span>assay development</span>

The search for new and more effective drugs is a complex and challenging endeavor requiring a number of strategies for identifying and processing new drug candidates. A common tool used in this search is high-throughput screening (HTS) of a large library of small molecular weight compounds. In each of our HTS campaigns, more than 500,000 compounds are tested for biological activity against one of our many molecular disease targets in order to identify compounds of potential therapeutic interest. High-throughput screens can be divided into two major types: those using cells, and those not using cells. At least 50% of our screens are cell-based and require a consistent, uniform supply of cells throughout the screening campaign. The provision of the cells is a primary consideration in our cell-based assays and therefore, an automated cell culture laboratory was included in our HTS facility. This laboratory serves two functions: the preparation of cell banks, and the daily provision of microtiter plates containing cells for the HTS…

Biologics Production

The enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay is one of the most useful techniques for the immunological monitoring of vaccine trials and has increasing application as a measure of specific T-cell activation. Recently, we developed, optimized, and validated a customized ELISpot kit for the detection of interferon gamma (IFNγ) positive cells. The precision of the ELISpot was good and it varied over the range of the assay values, independent of the stimulus. Here we describe the development of a library of donors with characterized responses to the CEF peptide pool: cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and influenza (Flu); pool of 32 peptides which can be used as controls for IFNγ ELISpot and multiple immune monitoring assay validations for use in clinical trials…

Cell & Tissue Banking