We describe a rapid and facile method for surface functionalization and ligand patterning of glass slides based on microwave-assisted synthesis and a microarraying robot. Our optimized reaction enables surface modification 42-times faster than conventional techniques and includes a carboxylated self-assembled monolayer, polyethylene glycol linkers of varying length, and stable amide bonds to small molecule, peptide, or protein ligands to be screened for binding to living cells. We also describe customized slide racks that permit functionalization of 100 slides at a time to produce a cost-efficient, highly reproducible batch process. Ligand spots can be positioned on the glass slides precisely using a microarraying robot, and spot size adjusted for any desired application. Using this system, we demonstrate live cell binding to a variety of ligands and optimize PEG linker length. Taken together, the technology we describe should enable high-throughput screening of disease-specific ligands that bind to living cells.
One-bead-one-compound (OBOC) solid-phase combinatorial chemistry has been used extensively in drug discovery. However, a major bottleneck has been the sorting of individual beads, while still swollen in organic solvent, into individual wells of a microwell plate. To solve this problem we have constructed an automated bead sorting system with integrated quality control that is capable of sorting and placing large numbers of beads in bulk to single wells of a 384-well plate, all in organic solvent. The bead sorter employs a unique, reciprocating fluidic design capable of depositing 1 bead per 1.5 s with an average accuracy of 97%. We quantified the performance of this instrument by sorting over 8,500 beads followed by cleaving the conjugated compound and confirming the chemical identity of each by LC/MS. This instrument should enable more efficient screening of combinatorial small molecule libraries without the need to dry beads or otherwise change chemical environment.
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