Current approaches to biomolecular screening, such as
genomics or proteomics, require evaluation of large numbers of candidate molecules up to or exceeding 100,000. Most approaches utilize systems in which a target site, such as an enzyme, is evaluated. The surrogate systems offer the advantage of large numbers and chemical simplicity. Their chief disadvantage is that
they aren't much good for evaluating molecules that must transit the insect digestive system before they reach their intended target.
Historically, entomologists evaluated such compounds using a whole animal feeding bioassay. Feeding bioassays are very labor intensive and historically not conducive to evaluation of large number of molecules. However, when successful, the feeding bioassay yields a wealth of information since the assay demonstrates efficacy at the
whole animal evaluation stage. The feeding bioassay is the
pharmaceutical equivalent of a limited clinical trial conducted at the Discovery Screening Stage. Methodologically, what was needed was an approach that allowed the same magnitude of throughput used in
biomolecular screening married with the information output available in a feeding bioassay. The development of Mon-ARES I (Monsanto-Automated Robotic Entomology Screen I) is the first automated robotics system developed to evaluate large numbers of biomolecules in a whole animal feeding bioassay.
Keywords: biomolecular screening, feeding bioassay
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