A review of automation options to support plate preparation, cherry picking, and homogeneous assays

Developments in high throughput screening (HTS) have led to new needs in au tomation to enable better handling of applications such as homogeneous assa ys and cherry picking. Software and hardware integration approaches for scr eening automation have been changing in concert with these new application needs. The result of this combination has been the production of robotic sy stems for drug discovery with improved stability and functionality. This re view critically assesses some Zymark, Tecan, and Beckman solutions for curr ent HTS requirements.