Discovering effective drug combinations may now be easier thanks to a screening platform made public today by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists. Many diseases, including cancers, require combinations of drugs whose effects are more than the sum of their parts to create effective treatment regimens.
The reserch team designed Combocat to use minimal resources and enable scientists to test massive numbers of drug combinations, rapidly nominating those most likely to have synergistic effects to explore further. Combocat integrates miniaturized drug dispensing with machine learning. For drug dispensing, sonic technology enables customized and efficient experimental layouts. We incorporated acoustic liquid handlers that use sound waves to transfer tiny droplets of drugs very precisely. They use the exact minimum of each liquid you need, allowing for the use of far less material than conventional pin or pipette-based techniques, and increasing the number of testable combinations.
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