Namjin Chung, Shane Marine, Emily A Smith, Robert Liehr, S Todd Smith, Louis Locco, Edward Hudak, Anthony Kreamer, Alison Rush, Brian Roberts, Michael B Major, Randall T Moon, William Arthur, Michele Cleary, Berta Strulovici, Marc Ferrer
High-throughput siRNA screens are now widely used for identifying novel drug targets and mapping disease pathways. Despite their popularity, there remain challenges related to data variability, primarily due to measurement errors, biological variance, uneven transfection efficiency, the efficacy of siRNA sequences, or off-target effects, and consequent high false discovery rates. Data variability can be reduced if siRNA screens are performed in replicate. Running a large-scale siRNA screen in replicate is difficult, however, because of the technical challenges related to automating complicated steps of siRNA transfection, often with multiplexed assay readouts, and controlling environmental humidity during long incubation periods...
June 2010: Assay and Drug Development Technologies