Robotic Liquid Handler and Microplate Analyzer System

描述(由申请人提供)：不断发展的化学生物学(或化学基因组学)学科为研究人员提供了一套新的工具和方法来探索基本的生物学和遗传学问题。这一策略利用小分子文库(例如，天然化合物、适配子或组合化学的产物)和高通量筛选来促进对生物途径的理解，以识别作为单个基因产物、途径或细胞表型的正或负调节因子的化合物。此外，长期主要在制药和生物技术公司范围内进行的发展治疗领域正在学术界出现，这在很大程度上是因为疾病继续从基因上划分为可以进行靶向治疗的子集，但从市场的角度来看，这些子集太小，不能吸引营利性公司的兴趣。虽然这种小市场疾病目标群体的确定是新的，而且还在继续，这在很大程度上是由于人类基因组的努力，但营利性经济障碍一直是一个长期存在的问题，这些障碍阻碍了为儿童恶性肿瘤等“孤儿疾病”以及许多传染病等“第三世界疾病”开发新的治疗方法。作为本申请主题的液体处理机器人和微型平板阅读器是多机构倡议的一部分，涉及位于田纳西州孟菲斯地区的五个机构(圣裘德儿童研究医院、田纳西大学、健康科学中心、密西西比大学国家天然产品研究中心、孟菲斯大学和基督教兄弟大学)，该计划旨在建立强大的化学生物学和发展治疗计划，以帮助解决基本的生物学问题，改善疾病的治疗，尤其是那些通常被制药和生物技术忽视的疾病。这一倡议涉及20多名研究人员，他们具有不同的专业领域，包括分子和细胞本体论、传染病和药物化学等--他们中的大多数拥有一项或多项NIH赠款来支持他们的研究，并与位于五个参与机构的一名或多名其他研究人员开展多学科合作项目。这项研究计划的一个组成部分还包括在圣裘德建立一个高通量筛查(HTS)核心设施，将向所有五个当地机构的合格研究人员提供，以促进他们为基础研究和可能的治疗应用，特别是针对孤儿疾病靶标开发小分子的努力。本申请中要求的液体处理机器人和微型平板阅读器将通过帮助使当地的HTS核心设施成为现实，来帮助满足孟菲斯地区对HTS能力的显著需求--本文档中的多个调查员项目描述就是例证。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The evolving discipline of Chemical Biology (or Chemical Genomics) has empowered investigators with a new set of tools and approaches to probe basic biological and genetic questions. This strategy uses libraries of small molecules (e.g., natural compounds, aptamers, or the products of combinatorial chemistry) and high-throughput screening to advance understanding of biological pathways to identify compounds that act as positive or negative regulators of individual gene products, pathways or cellular phenotypes. In addition, the field of Developmental Therapeutics, long mainly pursued only within the context of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, is emerging within the academic sector, in large part due to the continued genetic division of diseases into subsets amenable to targeted therapies but that are too small from a market standpoint to attract the interest of for-profits. While this identification of small-market disease target groups is new and continuing, occurring in large part due to the human genome effort, the economic blocks to for-profits that have precluded the development of new therapies for "orphan diseases" such as the pediatric malignancies, as well as "Third World Diseases" like many of the infectious diseases, has been a longstanding problem. The liquid-handling robot and microplate reader that are the subject of this application are requested as part of a multi-institutional initiative, involving five institutions (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, The University of Tennessee, Health Science Center, the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi, the University of Memphis, and Christian Brothers University) located in the Memphis, TN area, that seeks to establish robust Chemical Biology and Developmental Therapeutics programs to help address basic biological questions and to improve the therapy of disease, especially those diseases typically ignored by pharma and biotech. This initiative involves more than 20 investigators with varied areas of expertise, including molecular and cellular ontology, the infectious diseases, and medicinal chemistry, among others - most of whom have one or multiple NIH grants to support their studies, and are engaged in multi-disciplinary collaborative projects with one or more other investigators located at the five participating institutions. A component of this research initiative also includes the establishment of a high throughput screening (HTS) core facility to be based at St. Jude, which will be available to qualified investigators at all five local institutions to facilitate their efforts to develop small molecules for both basic research and possible therapeutic applications, especially for orphan disease targets. The liquid-handling robot and microplate reader requested in this application will help to meet the marked demand for HTS capabilities in the Memphis region - as is exemplified by the multiple investigator project descriptions that comprise this document - by helping to make a local HTS core facility a reality.