Events

Upcoming Events

How to do Screening@ETH - concepts, strategies and good practice

When: 21st to 23rd June 2022

The course examines
• High-Throughput Screening – from setup to data analysis
• High-Content Screening – principles of image-based screening
• Pooled Genetic Screening using the CRISPR/Cas system.
• Using Flow Cytometry as a tool for phenotyping and screening
• NMR for fragment-based screening, hit validation and compound QC  

See below for the detailed program.

Audience
The course is aimed at scientists from all faculties who are planning to or are about to start performing an in vitro or in vivo screen.

Prerequisite
Basic theoretical knowledge in biology/biochemistry/computational analysis. No particular computational or wet lab experience is necessary.

Venue and Time
The theoretical and practical parts of the course will be presented at ETH Hönggerberg.
The course will start at 09:00 and end around 17:00. Precise information will be provided to the participants in due time.

Registration
The course is limited to a maximum of 20 participants. For selection purposes, please note that your application will not be considered without a short statement of motivation. external page Registration

Detailed program

High-Throughput Screening – from setup to data analysis
(NEXUS Personalized Health Technologies):
This part of the course will cover the concepts, strategies and good practices in high-throughput experiments, how to successfully plan an experiment and how to deal with challenges. It will address the experimental as well as the data analysis components throughout the life cycle of a project, from the initial idea all the way to publication.

High-Content Screening – principles of image-based screening
(Scientific center for optical and electron Microscopy (ScopeM):
This part of the course examines the principles of image-based high-content screening (HCS) in theory and practice from HCS assay design to image acquisition and image - and data analysis. It outlines what automation mean for microscopy and associates benefits and constraints of HCS.

Pooled Genetic Screening using the CRISPR/Cas system
(Genome Engineering and Measurement Lab (GEML)):
Here, we will focus on the concept of pooled screening. In particular we will introduce genome engineering and discuss how genetic tools like the CRISPR/Cas system have been adopted and scaled to allow whole genome screens in a pooled format.
During this part of the course, participants are expected to grasp the rationale behind pooled genetic screening, and appreciate both the strengths and limitations of such an approach.
At the end, the participants will have the opportunity to assess and reinforce their understanding on pooled genetic screening through short interactive exercises.

Using Flow Cytometry as a tool for phenotyping and screening
(ETH Flow Cytometry Core Facility (FCCF)):
After an introduction into the inner workings of flow cytometry, we will address the possible uses of this technology for screening campaigns, including cell purification and high-dimensional phenotyping, and discuss several of the many of the flow cytometry-based cellular assays that can be employed for high-throughput characterization of cell function.

NMR for fragment-based screening, compound QC and validation
(Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy Platform (BNSP))
NMR is a well established technique to support multiple aspects of drug discovery. On the one hand, NMR can be used to perform quality control and in depth characterization of the compounds used in screening. On the other hand, NMR is a screening technique on its own, where entire target-based drug discovery workflows from fragment-based screening to hit validation can be performed.
In the course we will cover various practical and theoretical aspects of this versatile method in the context of drug discovery.