RNAi (RNA interference) is an increasingly accepted application in pharmaceutical research. The main goal of this cell based assay is to silence one or several gene products. The status and/or behaviour of the cells can be monitored in the presence of compounds or under varying growth conditions. The data can then be used to generate better information about the influence of potential drug candidates on cells in an early stage of the drug development process. Compared to knock out genes on the DNA level, RNAi techniques allow data generation in a screening approach, i.e. thousands of gene products are deactivated within one setup.
Hamilton's existing solution is capable of screening up to 10,000 RNAi molecules in one experiment. Including cell growth (which depends on the cell line) this experiment can require 60 hours to perform. Hamilton's hardware and software are designed to increase throughput and interleaving experiments.