Bruker Corporation this week at the SLAS2022 International Conference and Exhibition announced an innovative multiplexed assay taking high-throughput screening with SPR to the next level.
The Bruker Sierra SPR-32 Pro provides an 8×4 array for parallel readout of 32 measurement sensor spots per injection. This configuration offers high throughput while maintaining flexibility for the development of both biologics and small molecule drug candidates, e.g., for testing one antigen against 31 antibodies, to 8 small molecules against 3 target proteins with a single reference per channel.
Bruker demonstrated the multiplexing capabilities of the Sierra SPR-32 Pro platform with a selectivity assay, typical for lead development stages, and a screening assay against a set of carbonic anhydrases, a protein family with a high degree of similarity. These challenging examples typically require tedious repetitions of the same assay for each target protein, slowing down the drug development process. The multiplexing capabilities of the Sierra SPR-32 Pro reduces measurement time by up to threefold.
Bruker’s highly sensitive SPR detection enables measurements at high molecular weight differences between analyte and target of 10-3, supporting even fragment-based drug design.
Moreover, Bruker has developed automated 24/7 SPR plate-handling operation, or by its automation interface for SPR integration in HTS, which works with common scheduling software from various vendors. Bruker’s SPR software features seamless transfer of data and results to downstream analysis software, e.g., to Genedata Screener®.
“This was a truly collaborative effort, in which Genedata and Bruker really stepped up and enabled us to push the limits of SPR. By setting up robust automation and a comprehensive processing pipeline, we were able to screen and analyze our data with lightning speed.”
Dr. Christine Genick, Lab Head of the Protein Sciences Group at the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research in Basel
A collaboration between Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research, Genedata and Bruker is described in the application note ‘Tackling Challenging Targets with High-Throughput Biophysical Screening at Novartis’. With a total experimental time of 5 days, more than 10,000 compounds were characterized against one target protein and two of its disease relevant mutants. The seamless data transfer from Bruker’s SPR software to Genedata Screener® reduced data analysis to 2.5 hours.
