We mostly use 384-well plates, but can also handle 96-well and, for some assays, also 1536-well format.
In principle, we can do screens on any kind of cell line that can be cultured in microplates and is robust enough to be handled with our liquid dispenser. Cells that underwent viral transduction should receive at least two media changes with fresh medium before they can be handled on the screening platform. The use of primary patient material is also possible, but might need some extra precautions. Same is true for screening of bacteria. Screens can also be done on organoids or spheroids but also there, some extra optimization or testing might be necessary. In general, cells are usually seeded as single cell suspensions and should be as clump-free as possible. Clumping/clustering of cells during seeding can introduce large variability.
As an estimate, we typically seed 1000 cells/well in a 384-well plate for a 72h incubation. However, this number can or sometimes has to be adjusted to the specific protocol or cell type used.
We always include DMSO (=negative) control wells on all plates, and highly recommend to also include a positive control, which should be a compound that induces the same effect that you are screening for. For example, for a cell viability screen, we should include a positive control that is fully killing all of your cells. If you do not have an appropriate positive control available, we can also include at least a “technical” positive control, that is giving us the same signal response as our screen.
We usually do at least some basic data analysis by calculating Z’scores for plate statistics, and POC (=percentage of control) values for the drugs based on the positive and negative controls. We will provide a full result table, including the raw signal, plate maps and all calculated values, as well as some basic visualization of the data (dose-response curves, controls, overviews).For imaging screens, depending on the project, we can set up an image analysis workflow in Harmony and do the same basic data analysis as mentioned above, but if you have established image analysis pipelines in place and would like to use your own tools, we can also just export and give you the raw images.
You can find an overview of our prices here: Price List 2025 CeMM Chemical Screening Facility
In general, we charge one assay batch fee for each batch of plates that is processed in one run (independent of the number of plates; larger screens sometimes need to be processed in several batches). In addition, we charge a per plate fee that covers standard consumables and compounds. If the basic data analysis is done by use, we also charge a bioinformatic fee. Once we have defined the details of the screening setup, we can prepare a quote for detailed cost overview. We can also provide estimation quotes for grant applications.
In the case you want to use your screening data in a publication, please include the following sentence in the acknowledgements: “We thank the Chemical Screening team of the Molecular Discovery Platform at CeMM for help with the high-throughput experimentation”. If a member or members of the facility team contributed to a project in a way which justifies a co-authorship, we would appreciate to be listed as a co-author.
