Discovery Technology

The UPDDI occupies a total of 7,412 sq. ft. of laboratory space on the 4th floor of the Pittsburgh Technology Center: 

  • Three individual wet laboratories containing facilities to propagate a wide variety of mammalian, insect and yeast cells. 
    • A dedicated Microphysiology laboratory 
    • A dedicated High Content Imaging laboratory 
    • A dedicated High Content Screening and High Throughput Screening facility 
    • A chemicals/preparation room for reagent preparation and HTS consumables storage 
  • Automated liquid handling systems: 
    • Two bulk liquid dispensers 
    • Four compound dilution and transfer systems  
  • Detection instruments enabling running every kind of assay: 
    • Multimode plate readers 
      • Absorbance 
      • Luminescence 
      • Fluorescence intensity, time-resolved, fluorescence, fluorescence polarization 
  • Automated high-content microscope imaging platforms 
  • Two Etaluma automated, incubated microscopes for online, long term monitoring of live cells in microfluidic devices 
  • Two Olympus IX50 microscopes equipped with epifluorescence and monochrome/color CCD cameras (video capable) 


Analysis of large and complex data sets is handled through a variety of LIMS and HTS/HCS analysis software on data servers hosted at UPitt’s secure, state of the art Network Operations Center (NOC) with 24/7 monitoring and redundant power and cooling systems. Active data are backup up daily and static data archived semiannually. The servers are connected via a state-of-the-art network. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The BioSystics Analytics Platform (EveAnalytics™) is a unique online resource that was developed at the UPDDI that manages, analyzes, shares and computationally models complex data sets from in vitro experimental models, animal models and human clinical data creating actionable knowledge and predicting biological outcomes.  BioSystics, Inc. was spun out if the UPDDI and merged with Nortis, Inc. to form Numa BioSciences who maintains the BioSystics-AP as a shared data resource for microphysiology systems data from remote laboratories, along with locally generated data, as well as a commercial software system that can be installed on-site when working with proprietary data.