Caliper introduces LabChip® 3000 Drug Discovery System

The LabChip 3000 drug discovery system miniaturizes, integrates and automates enzymatic and cell-based assays. LabChip assays are separations-based, so the quality of results exceeds what is achievable in homogenous, well-based assays. High Z' values, few false positives, few false negatives and analytical quality reproducibility are the reasons cited for the increasing reliance on the LabChip 3000. No other screening system identifies weak enzyme inhibitors as reproducibly as the LabChip 3000.

Real Successes in Big Pharma

Currently 75% of the top 15 pharmaceutical companies are actively using Caliper systems as key tools in their screening efforts. Companies like Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, sanofi-aventis, Merck, Schering-Plough, Amgen, Lilly, Wyeth, and others are discovering the path to more productive screens. The most cited reason for using the Caliper system? Data quality. The number one application on the LabChip 3000 is kinase profiling, due to the high caliber of information that can be gained and the remarkably quick assay development time.

Diverse Assay Menu

A variety of enzymatic and cell-based assays can be performed on a single LabChip 3000 instrument. The assay menu for the LabChip 3000 includes:

• Serine/Threonine Kinases;
• Tyrosine Kinases;
• Phosphatases;
• Proteases;
• Lipid-modifying Enzymes; and
• G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Two Configurations to Meet your Laboratory's Needs

Depending on the system configuration you select, the LabChip 3000 is well suited to all areas of drug discovery:

• Assay Development
• Primary Screening
• Secondary/Selectivity Screening
• Lead Optimization

Simple, low-cost Assay Development Stations allow for method development and low-throughput screening requirements. Screening systems meet the needs of medium- and high-throughput screening laboratories, and come equipped with an on-board plate handler. An environmental control chamber is also included with the screening system so that 96- and 384-well plates can be automatically processed without risking sample evaporation.

Separations-based Assays for Analytical Quality Data

With Caliper's mobility shift enzymatic assays, the product and substrate are electrophoretically separated, thereby minimizing interferences and yielding the highest data quality available on any screening platform. Z' factors for LabChip 3000 enzymatic assays are routinely in the 0.8 to 0.9 range.

For cell-based assays, cells move past the detector one at a time, so that they can be measured independently, and so that potentially interfering fluorescent compounds do not interfere. The result is fewer false positives and more confidence in your screening data.

Microfluidic Format Saves Precious Reagents

The channels of the LabChip devices are 10-50 um in diameter, which means that many LabChip assays use much less reagent than would be required for the equivalent plate-based assay. For example, customers running cell-based calcium flux assays on a LabChip 3000 report using 100 times fewer cells per datapoint compared to their equivalent plate-based assays. For scientists constrained by limited cell availability, e.g. those working with primary cell lines, this offers a way to perform more assays than would otherwise be possible.

Sipper Chips for Higher Throughput

The LabChip 3000 uses Caliper's proprietary sipper chips as the "chip-to-world" interface that allows automated sampling from microtiter plates. To meet the needs of higher-throughput environments, the LabChip 3000 employs four or even twelve sippers on a single chip - so that samples can be processed, in parallel, up to twelve at a time.

Once on the chip, samples are manipulated through the channels of the chip to perform the steps required for mixing, incubation, reaction, separation, and detection. Movement through the channels is controlled using a combination of pressure and/or voltage, as described in the Technologies section.

Source from Caliper: http://www.caliperls.com/products/labchip3000.html