Compound Management

Fully Automated Compound Management Laboratory

Lina in Compound Management Lab

The Compound Management facility at UF Scripps provides core functionality for the solubilization, cherry-picking, storage, reformatting, transfer and replication of compounds. These Compound Management processes are supported by laboratory automation which allows work to be performed in microtiter plate densities up to 1536-well format with transfer volumes as low as 500nL. Typically, these processes are utilized to support Medicinal Chemistry, HTS and Assay Development efforts for both in-house and external collaborator’s projects.

The High-Throughput Molecular Screening Center’s compound management automation allows samples to be solvated and transferred between various labware types, densities and formats. Common liquid handling processes include performing compound titrations, reformatting compounds from lower to higher density labware, microtiter plate replication, compound transfer and cherry-picking of compound libraries. All physical liquid handling procedures are matched with appropriate data management processes to ensure the fidelity of data associated with all samples and labware which pass through the Compound Management facilities.

All Compound Management processes utilize a barcode based inventory system to ensure compound integrity throughout the life of the sample. This system tracks sample genealogies, LC-MS QC reports and sample availability. In addition, the inventory system has been integrated with sample storage automation which provides seamless sample access to end-users and ensures samples are available on demand.

A proprietary setup based on Agilent’s Rapid Resolution HT technology allows for fast HPLC separations using small sample injections yet generating high resolution chromatograms. Sampling compounds directly from microtiter plates, ≤1uL of sample is needed for a 5-minute separation & analysis time. Data collected includes UV & TIC chromatograms, full UV peak spectrum analysis, APCI and ±ES mass spectral fragmentation analysis. Estimated compound purity as well as mass ion identification is automatically calculated using custom software, and key QC attributes (compound ID, structure, compound mass & purity) are exported & stored in our HTS database. A complete flowchart of this process can be viewed in the image below.

Compound QC/QA Process