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Assay development is a very important step that precedes high throughput screening. it includes
several phases. the first one of them in called assay design; during this period the drug discovery
scientist will have to choose the technology that is most suitable for high throughput screening.
there are key parameters to keep in mind, such as cost, throughput, equipment compatibility, and of
course read-out level as well as signal to noise ratio. in most cases they are technologies that are
already designed to address the most classical targets such as kinases, proteases, g- protein
coupled receptors or ion channels . Nevertheless they are many cases when the scientist must
use his brain to find solutions for targets that are not easy to assay. He or she must find tricks or
tips to detect the product of an enzymatic reaction. The knowledge and experience of a passing
developer is then crucial. a very important part of these first that of assay development will be the
selection of reagents such as recombinant proteins, peptides, radioligands, primary cell lines,
recombinant cell lines, enzyme substrates and various probes. these last consumables will then
be related to the technology that will be chosen. amongst the most used technologies today
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