High Content Cell Discovery & Screening Facility

The HCSF is made up of three key components.

Cellomics ArrayScan HCS Reader
HCSF carries out large-scale, quantitative experiments that can combine functional genomics and proteomics with cell biology experiments  on individual cells and sub-populations, obtaining multiple data points per cell and per well.

It is an integration of cell-based assays, high-resolution fluorescence microscopy with advanced image processing algorithms and software to automatically capture, analyse, display and archive data. Experiments can be performed on a 96 or 384-well format.

Parameters that can be determined are based on morphology (cell shape, nucleus, ruffling, apoptosis and motility), activation (eg of tagged signal molecules), sub-cellular translocation (membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus) and activation of reporters. These can be detected with the assistance of flurorescent dyes, antibody staining or transmitted light.  Fluroresence dyes detected include those emitting in the blue, green, red and far-red spectrums.  The HCS Reader also has a live cell chamber (temperature and CO2 controlled) which enables kinetic studies.

Access to this technology will allow MIMR scientists to quickly focus on key pathways modulating cancer cell behaviour, inflammation and other human diseases.


Dharmacon siARRAY
RNAi libraries represent a library of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) against the entire murine and human genomes. siRNAs are synthetic oligonucleotides that can inhibit gene expression in mammalian cells through RNA interference (RNAi).

Scientists can then observe how the inhibition of a specific gene affects cell processes, structure and biochemistry. MIMR scientists will use these libraries in   various cell-based assays to identify novel genes involved in processes such as cancer metastasis, cytokine signalling and inflammatory processes.


Caliper Zephyr and Zymark Twister II
These are microplate and liquid handling robots respectively.  The Zephyr includes a 96-well pipettor which assists in the maintenance siRNA library plates; enables preparation of siRNA daughter and assay plates; and enables automated staining of cells for HCS assays.  The Twister II is a microplate handling robot to handle large numbers of plates both for liquid handling and reading by the HCS instrument.

The ability to monitor several readouts per well (reporter, viability, proliferation, apoptosis), combined with genome-wide knock-down of gene function presents an unprecedented power in discovery research not achievable without this facility.