Molecular Devices Introduces ScreenWorks Peak Pro Software Enabling High Throughput Cardiotoxicity Screening

Molecular Devices, LLC, introduces the ScreenWorks® Peak Pro™ Analysis Module for the FLIPR® Tetra System. The software offers the ability to analyze multi-peak calcium oscillation responses of cells, and in particular beating cardiomyocytes, to characterize cardiotoxic and cardioactive compounds during a high throughput screen.

ScreenWorks Peak Pro analysis module allows easy access to measurement of cardiomyocyte beat rate, as well as temporal characteristics of peaks including rise, decrease, and amplitude. These features are important for researchers to better understand in vitro cardiomyocyte function and the impact of toxic compounds that induce cardiac abnormalities. With ScreenWorks Peak Pro, the FLIPR Tetra System offers the potential to perform safety testing such as cardiotoxicity early in the drug discovery pipeline, thereby allowing researchers to fail toxic compounds sooner, and prioritize the most promising leads to take forward.

The system allows users to estimate efficacy and dosing of a drug candidate prior to progression into clinical studies. Both SAR and medicinal chemistry studies can be directed on a larger scale, when compared to more labor intensive traditional assay methods. The software enables increased throughput and cuts time to results by rapidly delivering advanced and simplified data analysis for multiple parameters in less than five minutes.

The ScreenWorks Peak Pro analysis module, when used with the FLIPR Tetra System and the FLIPR Calcium 5 Assay Kit, provides a robust, high throughput screening method for changes in intracellular calcium associated with cardiomyocyte contractions. Integrated fluidics enables simultaneous evaluation of up to 1536 wells in less than two minutes, and therefore gives users the ability to determine the immediate impact of compounds on cells. This method may be used with both primary and stem-cell derived, human and mouse cardiomyocytes.

“Scientists would previously have to manually count cardiomyocyte cell beats, or export the data to third party software, which was either costly or provided minimal analysis,” said Debra Gallant, Product Manager, Molecular Devices. “This module offers a real advantage to scientists investigating cellular responses, giving rapid, easy analysis and the ability to reject unsuitable or cardiotoxic compounds at an early stage.”