Fully Automated Platform Designed for High-Throughput Genomic Cytometric Screening

A customized, innovative automated flow cytometry screening system has been developed for cell-based screening of small molecule compound libraries, RNAi libraries, and functional genomics applications.

The Agilent Automation Solutions' (Santa Clara, Ca, USA) fully automated platform consists of an IntelliCyt HyperCyt high-throughput flow cytometry (HTFC) platform combined with two Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, CA, USA) Cyan flow cytometers and integrated into an Agilent BioCel 1200 sample preparation and plate handling robotic platform. The automated system, as configured, performs a diverse set of tasks important for carrying out functional genomics screens (cell culture, transfections, infections, sample concentration, and high-throughput flow cytometry) with very good throughput and minimal manual manipulation.


The technical poster presented at Society of Biomolecular Sciences Conference (SBS 2009) in April 2009 in Lille, France, showed how a proof-of-principle functional genomics shRNAmir screen for inhibitors of TGF-ß1 signaling in MPC9A7 cells identified several important regulators of this pathway. shRNAmirs targeting known signaling proteins such as Alk5 were readily detected using the HTFC capabilities of this platform.

With the automation configuration presented in the technical poster, throughput of the HyperCyt HTFC platform was doubled compared to stand alone operation. Data analysis software associated with the Agilent BioCel 1200 allowed plate level statistics to be generated within minutes of a screening run. In addition to speed, the technology is shown to considerably reduce the amount of sample aspirated for each analysis, typically acquiring two µL per well with thousands to tens of thousands of cells in each sample.

From standalone units to fully integrated systems, Agilent Automation Solutions combines key sample preparation and creative walk-away automation approaches with personalized customer service to provide complete solutions for laboratories.

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Agilent Automation Solutions
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