Screening Centers

Author: Kyle Fahey

 

Learning Objectives

  1. Define what a screening center is
  2. Consider the Pros and Cons of using Screening centers
  3. Explain why screening centers matter (3)

 

Summary

A screening center (with regards to High Throughput discovery) is a centralized lab that specializes in high throughput screening utilizing automated fluid handler technology (1) (Colombia Research Center n.d.). Many centers have screening libraries, informatics and detection technologies. This is highly important for labs that lack the capability or capacity for such projects, but need their samples screened. Automated fluid handlers are very expensive, so many labs, particularly small labs will utilize this service (2). It also does require a certain skillset that may not be present in all labs, particularly academic labs where graduate students cycle through the lab over time, or in labs focused on fields outside of pharmacology and medicine. The capacity element is huge for labs that may have a one or two automated fluid handlers with limited capacity. The centralization of these screening centers can often be cheaper than the material cost of running the program yourself via economies of scale (i.e. buying a liter of a drug that there is a lot of interest in is cheaper per µL than each lab purchasing a few mL of the same drug). It also could be quite expensive if you have a rather unique experiment. A disadvantage of these screening centers that should be considered is the logistical challenge of delivering novel drugs, volatile compounds and organisms (living or dead). In my field (Crop Biotech) I believe Automated fluid handlers are an underutilized resource. I’m highly concerned with the rate of yield increase being linear at the present, while population growth is exponential. I’m also concerned that farmers are already having to plant on earlier dates due to climate change, or even higher maturity groups. Here in NC, we still have plenty of maturity groups to “go up”(ie we start growing MG VIII- upper Texas, southern NC instead of MG VII). Wetter hurricanes will effect us, but we have a lot of drainage in our coast. I’m more worried about the semiarid regions of Africa, Southern Mexico and places like northern parts of south America. How this relates to Screening centers is that they can function as an entry into accelerated plant biology which could translate to an increase in the derivative of the yearly yield increase- effectively pushing the productivity of the breeding system to its maximum potential with ample data sets (4). I think there’s going to need to be some adjusting to the breeding system, and I think that High throughput discovery, automated fluid (and potentially solid) handlers are going to play a major role in that as they already sort of do in the pesticide discovery industry. So the potential for environmental injustice is quite incredible, as the farmers that feed us, and people in the third world that rely on the earth for sustenance suffer the consequences of the lifestyle we all chose (5). Screening centers are far more likely to be interested in bringing this technology to horizons due to the obvious economic incentives, and having the scale to make universal solutions to labs in agriculture as they did with the pesticide industry (Rouphael et al. 2018).

Audio Recording

References

  1. Columbia Genome Center. “Systems Biology Home Columbia University Department of Systems Biology.” High-Throughput Screening | Columbia University Department of Systems Biology, systemsbiology.columbia.edu/genome-center/high-throughput-screening.
  2. Dello, K., & Megalos, M. (n.d.). NC CLIMATE Science Report – 2020 Summary. Retrieved from https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/nc-climate-2020
  3. Rouphael, Y., Spíchal, L., Panzarová, K., Casa, R., & Colla, G. (2018). High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping for Developing Novel Biostimulants: From Lab to Field or From Field to Lab?. Frontiers in plant science, 9, 1197. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.01197

 

Questions

1. What is a Screening center (1)?
2. Why is it important (2)?
3. List (go back to learning objectives) (3)
4. Reflect – consider including a metacognition exercise…
5. How does this approach, technology, or concept relate to social and environmental justice… (5)?