SCALABLE MULTIPLEXED MICROARRAY ASSAY FOR RECEPTOR DOWNREGULATION

Spectragenetics, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract Chip-based technologies - e.g. DNA microarrays and next generation sequencing - have profoundly accelerated the pace of biomedical discovery because they are miniaturized, multiplexed, and highly scalable. By combining SpectraGenetics' FAP technology with printed reverse transfection microarrays, we intend bring these same virtues to live-cell screening against GPCRs and other receptors, which are the most prevalent targets of therapeutic drugs. The new screening system will detect and quantify the responses of many GPCRs in parallel by interrogating arrayed reverse-transfected mammalian cells that express FAP- tagged receptors. This miniaturized, multiplexed and scalable system will dramatically lower the cost-per-target in primary and secondary drug screens, thereby relieving a major bottleneck in the development of therapeutic interventions for numerous diseases and conditions. Further, because the system will employ automated instrumentation that is already in place in numerous industrial and academic laboratories, barriers to adoption will be very low.