Small Molecule Screening Facility (SMSF)

  • The facility headed by Dr. Hong Cao has allowed UMMS scientists a unique opportunity to apply the tools and principles of chemistry to understand the processes of living cells.

  • The screening facility assists researchers in developing high-throughput (HT) screening assays, performs HT screens of chemical libraries to identify new small molecules that can be used to probe biological processes of interest.

  • The facility coordinates the screening efforts of UMMS researchers, providing access to diverse chemical libraries and state-of-the art instruments including robotic compound transfer, liquid-handling equipment, imagers and plate readers.

  • The SMSF currently has a 30,000 drug-like small molecules from Chembridges's DIVERset library. The set is rationally selected based on 3D pharmacophore analysis to cover the broad part of the biologically relevant pharmacohore diversity space. A highly recognized and proven primary screen tool for a wide range of both validated and new biological targets. The Chembrige pre-designed collection is a larger collection for hit and lead identification.

  • The SMSF offers a LOPAC screen for $1000 that offers researcher the ability to screen 1280 pharmacologically active compounds. This annotated collection of small molecule modulators and approved drugs impacts most cellular processes and covers all major drug target classes. The LOPAC screen is considered as a great pilot screen.

  • Also offering a new library from MicroSource: FDA-approved US drug collection (1040 compounds) and and International drug collection (240 compounds). This screen will also cost UMMS researchers $1000.

  • The information from all screens performed at the facility is collected and stored in a central database.

  • The Cheminformatics database allows researchers to rapidly evaluate and compare results of their screens and can also be used in the future to classify the function of lead structures and biological targets.

data picture
Hits from a library of 30,000
compounds can be identfied. 		data picture
Hit compound structures can
be determined from databases.

Instrumentation

high throughput instrument high throughput instrument plate reader fluorence plate reader
Robotic Liquid Handling System with 8-channel
and 96-channel pipetting functions. 		Microplate readers with Fluorescence Absorption,
Luminescence, Time-resolved Flourescence,
and Fluorsecence Polarization reading functions.
Four injectors equipped for fast enzyme kinetics.

printer PLEASE PRINT & FILL OUT CONTRACT
Fax to Dr. Hong Cao @ x6-6231

pfd icon Fees and Contract


For further information contact:
Dr. Hong Cao, Ph.D.
Head, SMSF
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
LRB room 860D (ph) 508-856-8874
(fax) 508-856-6231
hong.cao@umassmed.edu