Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc.

The Institute for Cancer Research (ICR), part of the University of London, is using VIAFLO electronic pipettes from INTEGRA Biosciences to streamline its preclinical drug screening and translational medicine workflows. These pipettes are used to help identify new drug targets and advance into clinical trials, significantly increasing the center’s throughput and reproducibility of results.

The ICR is a global leader in oncology research, using state-of-the-art microscopy, genetic sequencing and proteomics facilities to gain a better understanding of the fundamentals of cancer biology. Lisa Pickard, Senior Scientific Officer at the ICR, explained how the center’s INTEGRA products have helped to streamline its liquid handling workflows: “I joined the institute over 18 years ago, and initially worked in a high throughput preclinical drug molecule screening lab. We used VIAFLO lightweight electronic pipettes for preparing our plate-based assays, and they were certainly the workhorse of the lab. The team was really happy with the enhanced reproducibility and accuracy the pipettes gave us so, when I moved to my current role in translational medicine, it was an obvious choice to purchase several 8 and 16 channel 125 μl VIAFLOs for my new team.”

“The VIAFLOs are the ideal solution for our high throughput growth inhibition assays, and have dramatically increased our throughput, speeding up the process of bringing new cancer treatments onto the market. These versatile pipetting solutions will be a mainstay of our lab going forward, and will be crucial in allowing us to quickly adapt to different workflows and testing needs as time goes on, supporting us in our journey towards cures for many cancers,” Lisa concluded.

Visit the INTEGRA Biosciences website to learn more.