HIGHRES Biosolutions (HighRes), a global provider of automated robotic systems to the Life Sciences industry, has announced it has been selected by the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (Sulsa) to provide multiple automated robotic platforms to support the UK National Phenotypic Screening Centre’s (UK-NPSC) research activities.

The robotic systems will be deployed at two sites, the University of Dundee and the new Target Discovery Institute at the University of Oxford. Together the partnership will focus on operating a world-class phenotypic drug discovery facility that will collaborate with a wider network of centres from across the UK, Europe and beyond, to bridge between academia and pharmaceutical companies and drive innovation in the sector.

UK-NPSC will focus on screening chemical libraries in a smart cost-effective way, mostly using human cells and tissues, in order to identify new drug candidates that address unmet therapeutic needs – particularly in complex multifaceted diseases. The deployment of HighRes’ flexible modular robotic systems and software will enable the UK-NPSC to implement a wide range of cell-based phenotypic screens using monolayer and 3D cultures – in live cells and fixed samples, and importantly, to reconfigure the systems to suit each screen.