Scripps Research, Brooks partner to develop and commercialize Plate Auditor

Brooks Life Science Systems, a division of Brooks Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq:BRKS), a leading worldwide provider of automation, vacuum, and instrumentation solutions for multiple markets, today announced the initiation of a technology development and commercialization partnership with The Scripps Research Institute.

The cornerstone of this partnership will be a Brooks and Scripps Research exclusive licensing agreement to jointly complete the development of a microplate imaging system created by Scripps Research and to enable Brooks to manufacture and commercialize this imaging system. This Brooks Life Science Systems "Plate AuditorTM" will be used by pharmaceutical and biotech compound management and high throughput screening (HTS) groups to evaluate the quality of the compound samples prepared in microplates for use in drug discovery HTS activities.

John Lillig, Sen. V. P. and Managing Director of Brooks Life Science Systems, commented, "As the leader in providing automated compound and biological sample management systems to pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the world, Brooks is very excited to be working together with the Scripps Research Institute's Compound Management Group on the development and the commercialization of this innovative and very useful Compound/HTS Quality Assurance technology. With over 350 million samples stored in Brooks Sample Management Systems around the world, the new Scripps Research/Brooks Plate AuditorTM will be a very nice complement to our Brooks Tube AuditorTM product offering and a valuable new quality enhancement tool for our many Compound Management colleagues around the world.

"This technology was developed to address an unmet need in our compound management operation-the automated assessment of compound quality in plate-based HTS libraries," said Peter Hodder, PhD, Senior Director and Head of Lead Identification at the Florida campus of Scripps Research. "Both HTS and compound management staff now consider it indispensable for routine quality control of cherry-picked samples as well as periodic monitoring of sample quality across all our screening libraries."

Source: Scripps Research Institute