TTP LabTech was
delighted to announce the results of the "Win an Acumen" and "Win a Mosquito"
competitions, as part of the closing celebrations of the inaugural European Lab
Automation Conference in Hamburg, Germany.
The winner of a
year's, free fully supported, use of TTP LabTech's laser imaging cytometer,
Acumen
® eX3, was Professor Roberto Perris, Director of
Anatomy and Cell Biology, Centre for Molecular and Translational Oncology,
University of Parma, Italy. Selected from a large number of exceptional quality
applications, Professor Perris was awarded this exciting opportunity as a
result of his application. In his novel research proposal he discussed
employing an Acumen
eX3 to establish a high content,
multi-parametric screening assay for the determination of drug susceptibilities
in individual cancer cell lines. With application potential in a clinical
setting, this research is ideally suited to fully exploit the high content
screening and imaging capabilities of the Acumen
eX3.
TTP LabTech's
Product Manager for Acumen, Dr Paul Wylie was extremely pleased at the number
and quality of research proposals that were received and found it extremely
difficult to decide upon a final winner.
As a result, a six month trial of a second Acumen was awarded to the
runner up, Dr Frank An from the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute
of
Technology (MIT) and Harvard, Cambridge, MA. Dr An's proposal sets out to
perform high content screening of the NIH's extensive small molecule library
for inhibition of the HIV, Viral Infectivity Factor. Dr Wylie commented that the
high content screening and imaging capabilities of TTP Lab Tech's Acumen was
perfect for this research and is looking forward to collaborating in this
study.
The clear
winners for the competition to win a year's fully supported use of TTP
LabTech's automated nanolitre liquid handler, mosquito
® HTS, were
Drs Phillip Gribbon, Sheraz
Gul and Ole Pless, from the European Screening Port (ESP) in Hamburg.
These scientists were awarded this unique opportunity based on their novel proposal
to incorporate a mosquito HTS into ESP's translational research and biomarker
facility, for the identification of novel targets that characterise
neurological diseases with a focus on Multiple Sclerosis (MS). On receiving
this award, Dr Gul commented "This instrument will
enable us to rapidly automate biomarker discovery and efficiently use the
precious patient material we have access to within our biomarker
platform".
TTP LabTech's
Commercial Director, Dr Jas Sanghera, commented that "The nature of this
research proposal was ideally suited to the liquid handling abilities of the
mosquito
HTS. Its precise pipetting of even difficult to handle
liquids, using disposable tips which eliminates cross contamination, enables
easy assay miniaturisation on a nanoliter scale. In addition, its rapid
dispensing capabilities make it ideal for high throughput screening assays of
biomarkers and drug sensitivities of valuable patient samples."
For further
information on either the Acumen eX3 or mosquito HTS please visit our website
http://www.ttplabtech.com/index.html
or contact
sales@ttplabtech.com