Robotic Liquid Handlers and Semiautomated Cell Quantification Systems Increase Consistency and Reproducibility in High-Throughput, Cell-Based Assay

To achieve maximum clinical utility, cell-based assays must produce reliable and reproducible results. To address these issues, we have developed and incorporated two automated systems into the ChemoFx assay (Precision Therapeutics, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA), a cell-based assay used to assess chemosensitivity and resistance of tumor cells to a spectrum of chemotherapeutic agents. An automated liquid-handling system plates cells and prepares and applies chemotherapeutic agents. Separate well-imaging and cell-counting systems quantify cell counts. In addition, we have developed a computerized tool to validate the accuracy of the cell quantification system. We report here that these automated systems improve the accuracy and precision of the ChemoFx assay. These systems also reduce technician time and human-induced variability. We propose that such automated systems could be incorporated into other cell-based assays and would provide increased confidence that such assays could be used to provide clinically useful information.