Screening


HTS SYSTEMS impact of reliability on downtime and drug discovery


This article reports the results of a survey on the reliability of automated HTS assay systems and the effect of reliability on output. Evidence supporting the view that HTS systems have associated with them a high degree of downtime was found and a significant proportion was attributed to poor reliability of hardware, both peripheral and integration components. Few survey respondents appear to have given much thought to the impact of HTS systems’ reliability on their company’s research enterprise as a whole and only minimal attempts have been made to assign an economic value to the downtime associated with HTS systems. In contrast, system integrators are actively working to deliver improved reliability and have identified/implemented many changes to their hardware and software over recent years to minimise downtime. A call is made for drug discovery companies to give greater internal recognition to the significant contribution HTS systems make. Equally HTS system operators need to take greater ownership of that role, champion their impact more widely across drug discovery, and embrace the challenge of 24-7 system operation. Somewhat belatedly companies are waking up to the fact that HTS system downtime represents a failure to maximally exploit a strategic resource which has an impact on their bottom line.


By Dr John Comley I 62


t is a well known fact that an impromptu visit to a Pharma robotic screening facility is unlike- ly to result in the visitor seeing an integrated HTS assay system in full operation (ie, performing any obvious visible task). The typical response to this is that the system is waiting for a command or undertaking an incubation period. However, an impression prevails that many of these systems are under-utilised and the concept of industrial 24-7 operation has been rarely applied. It is also sus- pected that the underlying cause of system down-


time is poor reliability and the lack of adequate operational robustness, such that some groups are reluctant to perform assays when key personnel are not on site, eg outside normal working hours. However, as HTS groups are put under greater pressure to achieve more with less resource, some companies are taking a deeper look at the return they are getting from these big investments. Increasingly there is a realisation that the func- tional operation and output of an HTS system can- not be considered in isolation and they play a


Drug Discovery World Winter 2010/11


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