(1308-A) High-Throughput Biologics Discovery, Production, and Characterization Using Automated Workstations
Monday, February 5, 2024
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Location: Exhibit Halls AB
Abstract: Antibodies and proteins have revolutionized treatment in many therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, neurodegenerative disorders, and infectious diseases. The discovery of therapeutic antibodies remains a major focus for pharma and biotech. Rapid technological advances in design and technical methods have been incorporated into antibody discovery platforms in recent years, necessitating the development of high-throughput discovery and characterization solutions. Merck Discovery Biologics leverages state-of-the-art techniques for display, protein production and purification, and characterization to shorten the time and cost incurred from project initiation to a go/no-go decision. Automated steps in DNA assembly, transformation, colony picking, DNA prep, transfection, protein purification, and characterization enables us to screen hundreds of constructs for binding and quality within three weeks. The automation of many steps in this process reduces hands-on time, manual errors, and cost while enabling significantly higher throughput than traditional discovery methods allow. Further, utilizing many small automation platforms instead of fewer massive integrated systems insulates against downtime and provides flexibility in optimizing individual parts of the workflow.