Compound storage and screening system for GlaxoSmithKline forms part of a brand new facility at Tres Cantos and represents a significant investment in drug discovery
RTS Life Science International announces has completed work on a new compound storage and screening system for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Spain.
It forms part of a brand new facility at GSK's Tres Cantos site, near Madrid, and represents a significant investment by GSK in new facilities and equipment for drug discovery.
The two double height Compact Stores are capable of holding over 2.8 million samples in various formats and concentrations.
There is one long-term archive store and a working store.
Attached to the stores will be five liquid handling stations capable of supporting a 50 screen per annum throughput.
The system has been designed to handle either 384 or 1536 well plates, with the fifth liquid handling station containing an Evotec Mitona capable of reformating into Evotec plates or conventional 1536 plates.
Neil Kelly, RTS's project manager, said: "The size and complexity of this system will give the user a huge choice of types and sizes of order.
The system is able to handle multiple orders simultaneously and the user can configure priorities, ensuring there are no bottlenecks in primary, secondary and dose response screens." The plate lids for this system have been specially designed to provide the optimum seal, be stackable and robot friendly.
Tubes are fitted with split septa, which create a good seal and are easy for instruments to pierce.
There is also an integrated thawing station, which can thaw a rack in 10-15 minutes depending on the DSMO variant.
The system contains two Gudel store robots and six Adept robots, two of which have been placed onto linear tracks to increase their working envelopes. Neil Kelly concluded: "This type of system has been designed to maintain GSK's compound libraries in optimum condition, while still allowing for rapid uHTS access."
