In 2021, researchers at the Broad Institute used single-cell RNA sequencing to analyze over 500,000 cells across 24 human tissues, creating an unprecedented atlas of human cell types that revealed dozens of previously uncharacterized cell populations1. This groundbreaking work exemplifies how the difference between groundbreaking discovery and missed opportunity often comes down to speed, precision, and efficiency. High-throughput assay development has emerged as the critical factor separating industry leaders from those playing catch-up.
This blog explores three transformative ways that high-throughput assay development accelerates the drug discovery process, ensuring that rapid, scalable approaches produce consistent and reliable results that move promising candidates from concept to clinic faster than ever before.
One of the most challenging aspects of drug discovery is the need to screen for numerous potential hits across various conditions, whilst avoiding the burden of time-consuming manual pipetting. High-throughput assay development has revolutionized this process, enabling rapid identification of hits through automated, multi-condition experiments. With the capability to assess thousands of variables in 96- to 1536-well plate formats, researchers can test multiple compounds and genes across a virtually limitless number of conditions2,3. High-throughput assay development accelerates genomics, drug discovery, and synthetic biology workflows by significantly reducing the hours spent on manual pipetting, which is prone to error and found to be tedious by almost every scientist4.
Advanced dispensing systems like the I.DOT Liquid Handler and G.PURE NGS Clean-Up Device from DISPENDIX bring a whole new level of efficiency through automated liquid handling (Fig. 1). The I.DOT Liquid Handler dispenses at impressive speeds, delivering 10 nanolitres across a 96-well plate in just 10 seconds and a 384-well plate in only 20 seconds (Fig. 2). Whilst the G.PREP NGS Automation Bundle enables researchers to run thousands of samples per day. Beyond their rapid performance, the I.DOT Liquid Handler and G.PURE streamline experimental processes, serving as intuitive and accessible systems, making them valuable tools for researchers at all levels of experience.
From parallel screening to miniaturization, the next frontier in efficiency lies in maximizing the use of precious materials. One of the most significant restrictions that most researchers face is maximizing the use of precious samples and effectively utilizing reagents. This has led pharmaceutical environments to focus on assay miniaturization, aiming to reduce reagent waste whilst enhancing throughput, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness4. Through the development of high-throughput assays, researchers can test more experimental conditions, improving throughput and data generation whilst saving money on expensive reagents6. Assay miniaturization also ensures the best use of limited or rare samples, which is typically one of the most challenging aspects of research and in clinical settings. Assay miniaturization can be applied to various experiments, including ELISA, compound screening, and CRISPR workflows, where both reagents and samples can be saved and used for further analysis or repeat experiments.
The I.DOT Liquid Handler from DISPENDIX provides flexibility in high-throughput assay development, helping to conserve reagents by running nanoliter-scale reactions, saving costly reagents and precious samples. The I.DOT Liquid Handler excels in precisely dispensing cells, compounds, and buffers for assay development and high-throughput screening, ensuring every droplet is precisely delivered into the target well below the source plate (Fig. 2). This method effectively eliminates issues of carryover and cross-contamination. With a dead volume of one microliter, the I.DOT conserves reagents by up to 50%, resulting in significant cost savings.
Figure 1. The I.DOT Liquid Handler is designed for automated, fast, reliable, non-contact dispensing, delivering 10 nanoliters across a 96-well plate in just 10 seconds and across a 384-well plate in only 20 seconds.
While miniaturization enables efficiency in resource usage, automation takes consistency and reproducibility to new heights. Producing consistent and reproducible results over a long-term assay is difficult without automation. This is primarily due to the challenges associated with manual pipetting7,8. Handling low volumes manually can be both tiring and time-consuming, and ultimately leads to a greater chance of human error7,8,9. The development of high-throughput automated assays ensures consistency and reproducibility are maintained at the highest standards across large batches and long-term experiments, resulting in more reliable and reproducible results2. With automation, scientists can spend less time manually pipetting and instead focus on other tasks, thereby improving efficiency and ultimately producing better, more reliable data2.
The G.PURE NGS Clean-Up Device and I.DOT Liquid Handler from DISPENDIX feature liquid handling automation, designed to reduce human variability and significantly enhance the efficiency of assay setup. The I.DOT Liquid Handler is specifically designed for reliable, non-contact dispensing, enabling scientists to walk away from their experiments with confidence (Fig. 2). The G.PREP enables laboratories to utilize automation incrementally while maintaining compatibility with existing NGS kits and workflows.
Figure 2. The I.DOT Liquid Handler from DISPENDIX can provide a High-Throughput Assay Workflow specializing in precise parallel screening, assay miniaturization, and reliable automation.
High-throughput assay development isn't just about doing things faster—it's about fundamentally transforming how discovery happens. By combining parallel screening capabilities with miniaturization techniques and robust automation, researchers can now explore chemical and biological spaces that were previously inaccessible due to time, cost, and resource constraints.
As we look ahead to the next generation of therapeutic breakthroughs, the role of high-throughput technologies will only grow in importance. Leading research organizations are already leveraging these capabilities to build massive biological datasets that power AI-driven discovery platforms—creating a virtuous cycle where faster experiments generate more data, which in turn enables smarter experimental design.
DISPENDIX products like the I.DOT Liquid Handler and G.PURE NGS Clean-Up Device stand at the forefront of this revolution, empowering research teams to scale assays quickly and precisely. The result? Consistent and reproducible outcomes, minimized human error, and freed-up scientist time that can be redirected toward creative problem-solving and innovation.
Download the I.DOT brochure or the G.PREP brochure, and take the next step in transforming your workflows!