Introduction
The UIC Research Resources Center (RRC) High-Throughput Screening Core (HTSC), located in the Retzky College of Pharmacy, provides instrumentation, automation, and expertise to support assay development, high-throughput screening, and hit validation.
The facility features an integrated Labcyte Echo 555 acoustic liquid handling platform with robotic plate handling, centrifugation, barcode scanning, automated plate lidding and de-lidding, and capacity for up to 100 plates. Controlled through Retisoft Genera scheduling software, the system enables unattended execution of complex screening workflows, including compound transfer, assay assembly, dose-response testing, and hit follow-up. Complementary liquid-handling and detection instrumentation supports a broad range of biochemical and cell-based assays and screening campaigns of up to 10,000 compounds per day in duplicate.
The HTSC also maintains a collection of more than 113,000 compounds available for screening, including both diversity-oriented and targeted libraries.