About us

The Queensland Compound Library is Australias only dedicated compound management facility. We employ microtube technology to curate and collate small molecules and natural product extracts. Microtubes are stored in a format-free environment, allowing easy access to specific samples for screening and reformatting into microplates.

Australian chemists now have a way to open up their compounds to a wide range of biological targets without loss of intellectual property. They also have the means to pursue 3rd party collaborations as the Queensland Compound Library can readily supply their partner with screen ready 96, 384, or 1536 well microplates.

A unique IP model that lies somewhere between the propriety culture of industry and the NIHs policy of placing data in the public domain was developed for the current Australasian situation. The Queensland Compound Library model allows synergies to develop and mature into projects that are prosecuted in a way best suited to the collaboration.

Dr David Camp

Biologists can access the compound library and request all available compounds or a subset for screening. The Queensland Compound Library will provide the requested compounds in any combination of 96, 384 or 1536 well plates. Requests for duplicate point screening or customised plate layouts can easily be accommodated. As is the case for the chemists, any intellectual property developed by the biologists is retained by them.

The current capacity of the Queensland Compound Library is 200,000 1.4 mL microtubes and 2,160 shallow well microplates. As the Queensland Compound Library is expected to grow in future years, additional capacity may be added as all units are modular and scalable. An additional 200,000 microtubes and 4,320 microplates plates can be accommodated before the facility reaches the limit of its ultimate storage capability.

What is compound management?

A compound library is a collection of small organic molecules, typically with molecular weights less than 500 Daltons, which are placed in a format that facilitates biomedical research. The Queensland Compound Library contains a suite of small organic molecules and natural product extracts that have been solubilised in dimethyl sulfoxide.  The liquid samples are then placed in microtubes and microplates. Once in solution, the molecules can be tested against biological systems to gain a greater understanding of the underlying functions and processes. In some cases, a compound may prove to be so efficient at inhibiting or accelerating a particular process, that it might, with further research, form the basis of a new drug.

Compound libraries go hand-in-hand with high throughput screening, the assaying of thousands to millions of compounds in a relatively short time frame that is typically measured in days and weeks rather than months. Due to of the sheer volume of compounds that can be screened in a single campaign, assays are miniaturised to maintain cost effectiveness.

Compound management entails proper curation of molecules in both pure (dry) and solution (liquid) forms. Solutions, in particular, must be maintained at tight environmentally controlled conditions to prevent moisture and oxygen entering the sample. Moisture is particularly problematic as dimethyl sulfoxide can absorb a significant volume of water over a 24 hour period. Water may react with the molecule or cause precipitation, thereby ruining the sample for testing. Compound management also involves reformatting the samples from microtubes into screen-friendly microplates or replicating microplates under the same tightly controlled environment used to curate the stock solution.

Reformatting is where an aliquot is taken from a particular storage format, such as microtubes, and transferred to another format, like a 384 well microplate. Microplates can also be reformatted in a process known as quadranting. Here, 96 or 384 well plates may be reformatted into higher density 384 (4 x 96) or 1536 (4 x 384) well plates respectively.

Replication, as the name suggests, is a direct transfer of an aliquot held in one format to a destination in the same format, e.g. the preparation of daughter plates from mother plates where both would be the same plate density and layout.

Origins

The genesis of the Queensland Compound Library began in 2001 when the Natural Product Discovery program at Eskitis formed a group led by Dr David Camp to streamline the storage and plate making of the natural product extract library.

Microtubes were chosen as the medium of choice for the long-term (5 year) storage of the extracts. By 2002, the benefits in terms of increased productivity and flexibility were apparent.

Using the expertise and experience gained at Natural Product Discovery, plans were made to establish a fully automated national compound management facility in which chemists could deposit small molecules into a central repository for use by the nations biological community. Following a proposal to the NHMRC in 2003, the scheme was submitted as a Smart State Research Facilities Fund to the Queensland Governments Department of State Development, Trade and Innovation in January 2005. Later that year at BIO2005, Queenslands Premier, the Hon. Peter Beattie, announced that the State Government, together with Griffith University, would provide funding to establish the Queensland Compound Library.