High-Throughput Screenings

Advances in chemistry, molecular biology, biophysics and engineering have increased efficiency and sophistication of screening approaches, so that high throughput is now not necessarily limited to "simple-and-robust" assays, but can be conceived even in the context of "high-content" assays with an in-depth assessment of complex phenotypes. We will discuss general approaches to "high throughput", and then move to more specific cases of small-molecule based, versus genetic based screenings. We will then consider different modalities of screenings: virtual, biochemical, cellular and in vivo. Finally, we will consider the output of screening campaigns ("hits"), and outline the following steps, depending on the screening format.

The student will be able to:
· Have a precise knowledge of the current approaches to high throughput screening and their modalities
· Employ a variety of resources to gather information on potential targets
· Evaluate the experimental workflow of different high throughput screening formats
· Formulate a plan for a screening experiment
· Be able to interpret and rank the results of a high throughput screening
· Understand the output of high throughut screenings and how to further develop "hits"