Cancer Research Technology Selects the Labcyte Access™ Laboratory Workstation to Prepare Assay-Ready Microplates for Cell-Based Screening

LONDON--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Cancer Research Technology (CRT), the cancer-focused technology development and commercialization arm of Cancer Research UK, announced today the implementation of the Labcyte Access workstation to automate the production of assay-ready plates to be used in a high-throughput cell based screening program.

“Our technology is now poised to bring similar advances across a wide range of genomic and cell-based applications. We are pleased to see CRT immediately realize these benefits with their efforts in cancer research.”

The Access workstation incorporates the Labcyte Echo® liquid handler—a revolutionary platform using acoustic liquid transfer—in a compact robotic plate handling system to enable walk-away production of low volume assay-ready plates. The Echo liquid handler does not require the use of pipette tips, pin tools, or nozzles, which provides unsurpassed precision and accuracy. By adding a range of device options and accessories, the Access workstation can adapt to the evolving requirements of applications in genomics, drug discovery and more.

The leading driver behind CRT’s purchase of the Access workstation was an overall reduction in compound consumption. Reduced compound consumption and assay volume allows CRT to increase their overall productivity by screening compounds across more assays at a time. In addition, automated acoustic liquid handling significantly improves data with the elimination of artifacts from cross-contamination or user errors.

“We already see the improved data quality for assays that have transitioned to the Access workstation,” says Fabrice Turlais, group leader HTS and compound management. “The improvements are seen in routine compound profiling assays as well as improve reproducibility in our cell-based HTS results. We can easily foresee the reduction in resource required for routine preparation of cell based IC50 assays and a significant improvement in the speed and flexibility of testing different concentrations for dose-response.”

“Echo liquid handlers have already had a significant impact on drug discovery efforts in the pharmaceutical industry,” says Mark Fischer-Colbrie, CEO and president of Labcyte. “Our technology is now poised to bring similar advances across a wide range of genomic and cell-based applications. We are pleased to see CRT immediately realize these benefits with their efforts in cancer research.”

About Cancer Research Technology

Cancer Research Technology (CRT) is a specialized commercialization and development company, which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefit of cancer patients. CRT works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies. CRT is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cancer Research UK, the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. CRT's discovery laboratories build on exploratory research to create attractive commercial opportunities through collaboration with research institutes worldwide. Therapeutic programs are then out-licensed for further development following identification of a suitable partner. Further information about CRT can be found at www.cancertechnology.com.

About Labcyte

Labcyte, a global life science instrumentation company, is revolutionizing liquid handling. Echo liquid handling systems use sound to precisely transfer liquids. The environmentally-friendly Echo platform generates better results with significantly lower costs when compared to traditional liquid handling systems that have high running costs, are prone to transfer errors, risk sample contamination and waste large amounts of plastic lab consumables. Labcyte instruments are used worldwide by all of the top ten pharmaceutical companies, as well as by small to mid-size pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, contract research organizations and academic institutions. Our customers work across a wide spectrum of biology including drug discovery, genomics, proteomics, diagnostics, imaging mass spectrometry and live cell transfer. Labcyte, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, has global sales and support. Labcyte has 46 U.S., 10 European, 5 Japanese and 1 Chinese patents with additional U.S. and international filings. For more information, visit www.labcyte.com.