Konfokaler Imaging Reader für Mikrotiterplatten

测序技术的进步使探索整个基因组成为可能。然而，将功能分配给基因组区域仍然是一个重大挑战。关于表型的信息现在成为科学进步的一个主要瓶颈。机器人技术和自动化设备允许处理大量的探针将决定科学在破译基因组信息方面的实际进展。到目前为止，很少有人关注细胞模式和结构的自然变异，尽管这些是基因表达和表型表现之间的重要联系。该灰色区域的原因是显微镜分析不容易扩展到大样本量。高分辨率高内容筛选平台消除了这一障碍，并提供了一个完全自动化的系统，以获得三维图像，随后可以通过相关软件包中实现的强大而灵敏的算法进行分析。该设备将用于三个主要的科学目标：植物细胞表型自然变异分析，筛选突变体库中的基因型，显示改变的蛋白质/蛋白质相互作用的Ca 2+信号和分析细菌感染的甲虫和拟步行虫，以阐明共同进化的过程。

The exploration of whole genomes was made possible by the advancement in sequencing technolo-gies. However, assigning functions to genomic regions remains a major challenge. Information on phenotypes now emerges as a major bottleneck for scientific progress. Robotics and automatic de-vices allowing the processing of large numbers of probes will determine the actual progress science will make in deciphering genomic information. So far, little attention has been dedicated to natural variation in cellular patterns and structure, al-though those are an essential link between gene expression and the manifestation of a phenotype. The reason for this grey zone is that microscopic analyses are not easily scalable for large sample size. The High-Throughput High Content-Screening platform lifts this hurdle and offers a fully auto-mated system to obtain three-dimensional images that can be subsequently analyzed by the powerful and sensitive algorithm implemented in the associated software package.This device will be used for three major scientific goals: the analysis of natural variation in plant cellu-lar phenotypes, the screening of mutant libraries for genotypes displaying altered protein/protein interactions in Ca2+ signalling and the analysis of bacterial infection in beetles and paramecia to elucidate the process of co-evolution.