Project Grant S15OD042581

The National Institutes of Health Office of the Director awarded the Regents of the University of Michigan $348,594 on September 1, 2026, to acquire a Beckman Biomek I7 automated liquid-handling workstation equipped with a HEPA-filtered hood for the Center for Chemical Genomics high-throughput screening core facility.

The Center for Chemical Genomics, located within the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan, operates a high-throughput screening facility serving U-M faculty and external researchers. The facility conducts approximately 20 high-throughput screening campaigns annually and supports 3 to 5 structure-activity relationship campaigns. An automated liquid handler supports 100 percent of the screening experiments performed by the center. The current Biomek FXP instrument cannot be upgraded with the HEPA-filtered enclosure attachment necessary for experiments requiring a sterile environment. Patient-derived cell protocols and multi-day compound treatment protocols increasingly demand sterile conditions to improve assay fidelity and reduce cell contamination risk. The acquisition of the Biomek I7 with HEPA-filtered capability will enable the facility to accommodate screening experiments requiring aseptic handling and to serve evolving experimental protocols across early-phase drug discovery and basic research at the institution.

The award is made under the Research Infrastructure Programs (Assistance Listing 93.351), which supports scientific instrumentation and research resources. Performance occurs at the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a period of performance from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2027.