In collaboration with the School of Chemical Sciences, the Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) has provided support for significant infrastructure upgrades to the High-throughput Screening Facility (HTSF) which will dramatically expand and accelerate cancer research capabilities for CCIL members, as well as other campus research faculty.
In 2022, the School of Chemical Sciences named Vishnu Krishnamurthy as the HTSF Director.
Krishnamurthy completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2019, and then worked as a postdoctoral research member in the biochemistry lab of CCIL member Kai Zhang.
Vishnu Krishnamurthy is the director of the High-throughput Screening Facility.
At the time of Krishnamurthy’s appointment, the HTSF was exploring expansion to its capacity. CCIL Deputy Director Paul Hergenrother, a professor of chemistry, simultaneously approached the HTSF to express his—and the CCIL’s—interest in expanding and automating the process of growing cancer cells for expediting the screening and testing of novel chemical compounds.
The two found alignment and a strengthened alliance emerged, all in the spirit of a worthy goal: accelerated cancer drug development.
With this instrument we anticipate putting on fast-forward our ability to identify anticancer compounds that are highly selective for various subtypes of cancer.”
Just a few feet away from the entry to the newly furnished HTSF in Noyes Lab, you will find the former HTSF equipment still in operation, still performing critical screening tasks for chemists. To the untrained eye, the two rooms might appear similar. But the difference between the two is stark.
The upgraded HTSF contains a dramatic step forward for cancer research on the Illinois campus.
“This setup is a major step up in our research capabilities. It would be standard in large research hospitals and in pharmaceutical companies, but it is a coveted resource at the level of academic research institutions. So, what we have here is special,” said Krishnamurthy.
The original HTSF, shown here, sits across the hall from HTSF 2.0 in the third floor of Noyes Lab.
Krishnamurthy works on optimizing the new automated high-throughput screening equipment, which includes the liquid handlers pictured to his left and to his right.
The upgraded HTSF not only contains cutting-edge screening equipment, but the processing system also is automated, fast, programmable, and very efficient. Krishnamurthy said that the new automated system can efficiently handle five to ten times the quantity of screening plates than before and is excellent for miniaturizing assays into the 1536-well plate format, which is a significant improvement when compared with the old facility’s 96- or 384-well plate format. The new setup also uses less consumables while freeing up facility users to simultaneously perform other lab tasks.
Simply put, these innovations are expected to aid CCIL researchers to discover novel molecules more quickly, with targeted and broad application. In terms of the scale of the HTSF, where the lab might have had the capacity to develop five new anticancer compounds previously, the upgraded HTSF will ideally enable the discovery of 50 new anticancer compounds.
Krishnamurthy highlights the increased capacity of the 1,536-well plate (far right) in the new plate handler.
Krishnamurthy loads items in the new incubator.
The beefed up HTSF features a robotically integrated setup which includes an acoustic liquid handler for compound libraries, two new liquid handlers for cancer cell culture, a plate reader, two incubators for adherent and non-adherent cell lines, a centrifuge, and a high-capacity ambient storage hotel. Krishnamurthy noted that this new setup also holds one other significant advantage to the old: as a modular system, it can easily take the leap toward the next innovative iteration.
In the future, the HTSF will train users to run their own screens; however, Krishnamurthy will currently manage the experiments while he optimizes the system. But for now, organic chemists looking for an opportunity to test their compounds, the HTSF is open for business and ready to accelerate drug discovery.
Editor’s notes:
This story was written by Jonathan King, CCIL Communications Specialist
To contact HTSF Director Vishnu Krishnamurthy, email vkrshnm2@illinois.edu