GSK, AstraZeneca and Labcyte collaborate to combine acoustic liquid dispensing with mass spectrometry to reduce costs and cycle times.

Labcyte, a San Jose-based liquid handling technology developer has confirmed that GSK has joined its consortium with AstraZeneca to introduce the company’s acoustic dispensing technology with mass spectrometry (Acoustic-MS) in support of high-throughput screening and drug discovery.

The innovation, said Labcyte, comes from the company’s novel acoustic liquid dispensing technology that uses sound waves to move minute quantities of liquid with accuracy and precision. To support MS screening, the acoustic dispensing technology has been enhanced to create an “MS-friendly” mist of nano-droplets in a process it calls Acoustic Mist Ionization (AMI). According to Labcyte, Mass spectrometers are currently used to quantify the amount of drug substance present in screening assays, drug metabolism studies, and safety and efficacy experiments. “The use of MS through AMI in high throughput applications has the potential to reduce both cost and cycle time in early drug discovery,” said the company. Both GSK and AstraZeneca, said Labcyte, will work with multiple prototype instruments and apply them to high-priority assays and share the results with the consortium.

“Labcyte’s standard acoustic liquid handling has already been deployed across many areas of life science research and drug development as the result of its many benefits,” said Mark Fischer-Colbrie, Labcyte’s CEO. “Our goal is to continue that expansion with Acoustic-MS. We have made significant progress in collaboration with AstraZeneca over the past four years with great results. This new consortium will help validate new applications and optimize the Acoustic-MS technology for both creating new workflows as well as for fitting into existing drug discovery processes.”