The Bioscience Screening Facility (BSF) Shared Resource was first established in 2003 by the Department of Chemical &Systems Biology in the School of Medicine. The BSF's mission is to provide researchers at Stanford with ability to run high-throughput chemical, siRNA, cDNA, and high-content screens for the purpose of drug and/or target discovery. The BSF brings research approaches that were previously carried out exclusively in industry into academia to advance basic biomedical research. This high-throughput screening (HTS) laboratory allows researchers to discover novel modulators of targets that are of interest to academic investigators. The center incorporates instrumentation, databases, compound libraries, and personnel whose previous sole domains were in industry. Among our instrumentation are a Molecular Devices ImageXpress Micro fluorescence microplate imager with live cell option, a Caliper Life Sciences SciClone ALH3000 microplate liquid handler and the Molecular Devices Analyst GT and FlexStation II 384 fluorescence, luminescence and absorbance microplate readers. The facility has over 130,000 small molecules for compound screens, 15,000 cDNAs for genomic screens, and the siARRAY whole human genome siRNA (small interfering RNA) library from ThermoFisher Scientific (formerly Dharmacon) targeting 21,000 genes. Access to this equipment and services are provided much more cost-effectively and efficiently through this centralized facility. Before this facility was available, most of these screening experiments were too expensive to be performed at Stanford. This Cancer Center Shared Resource, now provides the means for Cancer Center members to perform high-throughput screens and use high-throughput equipment, such as plate readers, for their research. Additionally, it enables investigators to discover novel cancer targets and potential therapeutics. The Shared Resource makes every effort to bring in new technologies, such as whole genome siRNA knockdown screens, and other services to meet the evolving needs of Cancer Center members. Although the BSF has been a Cancer Center Shared Resource only since 2007, investigators in nine Programs of the Cancer Center have used the BSF equipment and services for their studies.
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