Key competences, research areas and products
- High throughput in-vitro cell based assays: SINTEF has extensive experience in development and use of high throughput in-vitro assays for evaluation of toxicity and antibacterial- and antifungal activity, as well as established assays for evaluation of activity towards a range of mammalian cell lines including NCI DTP 60 cancer cell lines, HeLa, NIH/3T3, IMR90, THP-1, HUV-EC-C, LLC-PK1, and HepG2. SINTEF has established reporter assays for sub-lethal cellular stress/tox responses (oxidative stress, DNA damage, NF-kB; hypoxia, ER Stress, heavy metal stress, heat shock, glucocorticoid, JNK, xenobiotic). Assays for evaluation of antifungal- and antibacterial activity (both planktonic and biofilm eradication assays) using a panel of selected indicator strains including microorganisms with known resistance to relevant antibiotics, are available.
- Strain development and miniaturized cultivation: SINTEF has long experience in development of miniaturized cultivation protocols for high throughput screening of microbial strain libraries and optimization of culture conditions. Use of robotic equipment and cultivation in microwell plates enable efficient processing and evaluation of tens of thousands of cultures.
- Enzyme evolution: SINTEF currently performs high throughput screening for enzyme evolution and enzyme optimization in large public founded projects (NorZymeD and MarPol)
- High throughput mass spectrometry: SINTEF has extensive experience in HTS using mass spectroscopy for detection of analytes. Both rapid LCMS protocols and the novel Agilent Rapidfire technology for ultra-fast mass spectroscopy are used for label free screening. The Agilent Rapidfire technology enables detection of multiple analytes in complex samples at a rate of 10-15 seconds per sample..
- Chemical biology and combinatorial medicine: SINTEF is a partner in the NOR-Openscreen national infrastructure for chemical biology and bioprospecting and has access to a range of chemical libraries for screening. SINTEF participates in several projects on the use high throughput technology for evaluation of chemical libraries and combinations of compounds/medicines.
- Nanotechnology and nanomedicine: SINTEF is a partner in the Horizon 2020 EU-NCL infrastructure project focusing on preclinical evaluation of novel nanomedicines. SINTEF is one of three labs partner labs in Europe responsible for evaluation in-vitro toxicity in the EU-NCL infrastructure.
Contact persons: Håvard Sletta, Geir Klinkenberg