University of Miami
Yan Shi
1095 NW 14th Terrace
Lois Pope LIFE Center
Miami, FL 33136
https://www.themiamiproject.org/research-resources/core-facilities/drug-discovery-core/
RRID: RRID:SCR_022542
PerkinElmer Opera Phenix Plus High-Content Screening System
PerkinElmer Janus G3 Liquid Handling Robot
Assay Development
Assays and Measurements
Cell Imaging
Computer-assisted Neuron Tracing And Analysis
Confocal Microscopy
Confocal/ Super Resolution Microscope
Consultation
Consultations
Data Analysis
Data Analysis And Interpretation
Drug Discovery
Fluorescence Microscope With Optical Sectioning Capability
High Content Screening
Microscopy
Optical Imaging
Pooled Screens
Scanning 20X Brightfield
Scanning 20X Flourescent
Scanning 20X Fluorescent
Scanning 40X Brightfield
Scanning 40X Fluorescent
Small Molecule Compound Screening
1.) Ryan CB, Choi JS, Kang B, Herr S, Pereira C, Moraes CT, Al-Ali H, Lee JK (2024 Jan). PI3K signaling promotes formation of lipid-laden foamy macrophages at the spinal cord injury site. Neurobiology of disease, 190(), 106370. . ID: 38049013.
2.) Ge M, Molina J, Kim JJ, Mallela SK, Ahmad A, Varona Santos J, Al-Ali H, Mitrofanova A, Sharma K, Fontanesi F, Merscher S, Fornoni A (2023 May 2). Empagliflozin reduces podocyte lipotoxicity in experimental Alport syndrome. eLife, 12(), . . ID: 37129368.
3.) Gurumani M, Mallela SK, Varona J, Merscher S, Fornoni A, Al-Ali H (2023). A Robust Phenotypic Screening Assay Utilizing Human Podocytes to Identify Agents that Modulate Lipid Droplets. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 2625(), 163-174. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2966-6_15. ID: 36653642.
4.) Mah KM, Wu W, Al-Ali H, Sun Y, Han Q, Ding Y, Muñoz M, Xu XM, Lemmon VP, Bixby JL (2022 Sep). Compounds co-targeting kinases in axon regulatory pathways promote regeneration and behavioral recovery after spinal cord injury in mice. Experimental neurology, 355(), 114117. . ID: 35588791.
5.) Pressly JD, Gurumani MZ, Varona Santos JT, Fornoni A, Merscher S, Al-Ali H (2022 Mar 1). Adaptive and maladaptive roles of lipid droplets in health and disease. American journal of physiology. Cell physiology, 322(3), C468-C481. . ID: 35108119.
6.) Mallela SK, Ge M, Molina J, Santos JV, Kim JJ, Mitrofanova A, Al-Ali H, Marples B, Merscher S, Fornoni A (2022 Feb 3). Sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase acid like 3B (SMPDL3b) regulates Perilipin5 (PLIN5) expression and mediates lipid droplet formation. Genes & diseases, (), . doi: 10.1016/j.gendis.2021.12.014. ID: 35224168.
7.) Ryan CB, Choi JS, Al-Ali H, Lee JK (2022 Feb). Myelin and non-myelin debris contribute to foamy macrophage formation after spinal cord injury. Neurobiology of disease, 163(), 105608. . ID: 34979258.
8.) Khalafi S, Zhu S, Khurana R, Lohse I, Giordano S, Corso S, Al-Ali H, Brothers SP, Wahlestedt C, Schürer S, El-Rifai W (2022 Jan). A novel strategy for combination of clofarabine and pictilisib is synergistic in gastric cancer. Translational oncology, 15(1), 101260. . ID: 34735897.
9.) Lowell JA, O (2021 Dec). Phenotypic Screening Following Transcriptomic Deconvolution to Identify Transcription Factors Mediating Axon Growth Induced by a Kinase Inhibitor. SLAS discovery : advancing life sciences R & D, 26(10), 1337-1354. doi: 10.1177/24725552211026270. ID: 34218704.
10.) Kim JJ, David JM, Wilbon SS, Santos JV, Patel DM, Ahmad A, Mitrofanova A, Liu X, Mallela SK, Ducasa GM, Ge M, Sloan AJ, Al-Ali H, Boulina M, Mendez AJ, Contreras GN, Prunotto M, Sohail A, Fridman R, Miner JH, Merscher S, Fornoni A (2021 Jan). Discoidin domain receptor 1 activation links extracellular matrix to podocyte lipotoxicity in Alport syndrome. EBioMedicine, 63(), 103162. . ID: 33340991.
11.) Patel AK, Broyer RM, Lee CD, Lu T, Louie MJ, La Torre A, Al-Ali H, Vu MT, Mitchell KL, Wahlin KJ, Berlinicke CA, Jaskula-Ranga V, Hu Y, Duan X, Vilar S, Bixby JL, Weinreb RN, Lemmon VP, Zack DJ, Welsbie DS (2020 Dec 29). Inhibition of GCK-IV kinases dissociates cell death and axon regeneration in CNS neurons. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(52), 33597-33607. . ID: 33318207.
12.) Liu X, Ducasa GM, Mallela SK, Kim JJ, Molina J, Mitrofanova A, Wilbon SS, Ge M, Fontanella A, Pedigo C, Santos JV, Nelson RG, Drexler Y, Contreras G, Al-Ali H, Merscher S, Fornoni A (2020 Nov). Sterol-O-acyltransferase-1 has a role in kidney disease associated with diabetes and Alport syndrome. Kidney international, 98(5), 1275-1285. . ID: 32739420.
13.) Lohse I, Azzam DJ, Al-Ali H, Volmar CH, Brothers SP, Ince TA, Wahlestedt C (2019 Aug). Ovarian Cancer Treatment Stratification Using <i>Ex Vivo</i> Drug Sensitivity Testing. Anticancer research, 39(8), 4023-4030. . ID: 31366484.
14.) Gautam P, Jaiswal A, Aittokallio T, Al-Ali H, Wennerberg K (2019 Jul 18). Phenotypic Screening Combined with Machine Learning for Efficient Identification of Breast Cancer-Selective Therapeutic Targets. Cell chemical biology, 26(7), 970-979.e4. . ID: 31056464.
15.) Sartor GC, Malvezzi AM, Kumar A, Andrade NS, Wiedner HJ, Vilca SJ, Janczura KJ, Bagheri A, Al-Ali H, Powell SK, Brown PT, Volmar CH, Foster TC, Zeier Z, Wahlestedt C (2019 Jan 23). Enhancement of BDNF Expression and Memory by HDAC Inhibition Requires BET Bromodomain Reader Proteins. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 39(4), 612-626. . ID: 30504275.
16.) Mallela SK, Patel DM, Ducasa GM, Merscher S, Fornoni A, Al-Ali H (2019). Detection and Quantification of Lipid Droplets in Differentiated Human Podocytes. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 1996(), 199-206. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9488-5_17. ID: 31127558.
17.) Al-Ali H, Debevec G, Santos RG, Houghten RA, Davis JC, Nefzi A, Lemmon VP, Bixby JL, Giulianotti MA (2018 Oct 11). Scaffold Ranking and Positional Scanning Identify Novel Neurite Outgrowth Promoters with Nanomolar Potency. ACS medicinal chemistry letters, 9(10), 1057-1062. doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.8b00425. ID: 30344917.
18.) Haggerty AE, Al-Ali H, Oudega M (2018 Sep). Soluble laminin polymers enhance axon growth of primary neurons in vitro. Journal of biomedical materials research. Part A, 106(9), 2372-2381. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.36429. ID: 29637694.
19.) Lohse I, Al-Ali H, Volmar CH, D Alvarez Trotta A, Brothers SP, Capobianco AJ, Wahlestedt C (2018). Ex vivo drug sensitivity testing as a means for drug repurposing in esophageal adenocarcinoma. PloS one, 13(9), e0203173. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203173. ID: 30212533.
20.) Buchser W, Collins M, Garyantes T, Guha R, Haney S, Lemmon V, Li Z, Trask OJ (2004). Assay Development Guidelines for Image-Based High Content Screening, High Content Analysis and High Content Imaging ID: 23035272.
21.) Al-Ali H, Blackmore M, Bixby JL, Lemmon VP (2004). High Content Screening with Primary Neurons ID: 24260776.
The Drug Discovery Core (DDC) at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis leverages the PerkinElmer Opera Phenix Plus high content screening system to provide researchers with state-of-the-art assay development and phenotypic screening capabilities. The core facility is also equipped with a PerkinElmer Janus G3 liquid handler, featuring modular and variable dispense heads, to automate screening workflows and enhance throughput.
The core supports a wide range of phenotypic and target-based assays. Phenotypic assays range from 2D to 3D, widefield to confocal, and antibody to dye based. It collaborates with users to develop customized assays and analytical pipelines tailored to their specific needs. Current specializations include neurite tracing, lipid droplet quantification, cell viability, morphological and kinetic analyses, phagocytosis, cell marker detection, cell adhesion, among others.
