Automated Cell Culture System - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The goal of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is to enable cutting-edge nanobiology and biomedical research. CNSI is home to the Molecular Screening Shared Resource (MSSR), which provides transformative high throughput screening (HTS) capabilities to the research community to facilitate discovery and development of new drugs, development of novel screening technologies, and training of the next generation of scientists. Since 2003, the services of the MSSR have been leveraged to obtain $268 million in grant funding. The first MSSR-originated small molecule, TRE- 515, is in phase II clinical trials for the treatment of solid cancers at UCLA and other large molecule drugs developed at MSSR are in cGMP production in preparation for clinical trials. The MSSR has been able to scale its services to meet increasing demand through the extension of its machine park. As part of the build-out of the machine park, MSSR is requesting the purchase of the CellXpress.AI automated cell culture system. The system will allow researchers throughout UCLA to scale cell culture in preparation for high throughput screening campaigns and meet the overwhelming demand for genome engineered cell lines and advanced cellular assay systems like organoids. Over 30 users have been identified across the fields of natural sciences, engineering, and biomedical science/medicine with active federal funding that will significantly benefit from the resulting engineered and advanced cell line models for drug discovery enabled by an automated cell culture instrument. The new instrument will also meet a critical need for improved rigor and repeatability as the transition of cell culture work to automated processes eliminates human associated variability and errors. The new system will also enable MSSR to push the envelope on the development of next generation assay systems including spheroids and organoids needed for the pre-clinical evaluation of its next drug candidates. Together with MSSRs existing high throughput screening infrastructure, small molecule, and functional genomics libraries, this instrument will provide a robust resource for faculty members who are eager to expand the scope of their current biomedical and biological research projects to include engineered cell line models and advanced 3D systems in their drug discovery and basic research efforts. The proposed instrument enjoys strong institutional support thus ensuring lasting impact while allowing MSSR to expand its drug discovery capabilities. High Throughput Screening methodologies have become an integral part of CNSI’s highly successful research resources that bring UCLA’s academic research discoveries to patients in the form of new drug treatments.
