Cancer Research UK has bought a TTP LabTech Acumen eX3 microplate cytometer to run an RNAi whole genome screen that identifies cytotoxic survival regulators.
The Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute (LRI) has established a High-Throughput Screening facility to enable its research groups to access easily genome-wide siRNA and RNAi screening technologies. The 46 research groups at the LRI are engaged in innovative biological research to improve understanding of cancer.
The techniques employed are varied and encompass approaches using anything from yeast to flies to human cells. The human genome siRNA collection contains some 22,000 genes spread over 267 96-well plates; and a typical genome screen in triplicate would require 801 plates to be analysed. The LRI facility needs equipment that is robust, capable of high throughput and flexible to accommodate all possible interests of the research groups.
The high throughputs achieved by the Acumen eX3 mean that to screen the whole genome will take days, compared with at least two years to carry out the same screen on a flow-based instrument.