High quality tools for innate immunity research and drug discovery
As a supervisor of undergraduate or MSc students in the Life Sciences, you may be looking for ways to offer engaging and career-relevant research projects without adding to your existing workload.
We offer unique, high-quality natural product screening kits designed specifically for use in BSc and MSc student research projects in the area of drug discovery. Whether you aim to supervise experimental (“wet-lab”) or computational data analysis (“dry”) projects, our ready-to-use kits and other resources are supported by comprehensive online project outlines and method sheets, making the projects easy to run for both students and educators alike.
Phytotitre projects
• Safe, well-characterised extract and compound collections
• Supplied in convenient and easy to use 96-well format
• Versatile for various assay types
• Backed by clear, practical method sheets, free to download from our website
• "Dry" data analysis projects also available
• An excellent introduction to modern drug discovery techniques
Students screen our Phytotitre natural extract collection (see image below) to identify those extracts which modify a biological phenotype of interest (e.g. bacterial growth, tumour cell-line growth, etc.). They then perform follow-on experiments using one or more of the hit extracts (e.g. dose response assays, in vitro toxicity testing, investigation of potential mechanisms of action, etc.).
Students can either follow our ready-made, turn-key project outlines and method sheets, requiring minimal additional input for project design and planning, or as a starting point for your own target-based discovery projects using your own methods.
Comprehensive online support is available in the form of complete project guides, trouble shooting FAQs, tips for data analysis and method sheets to cover every experiment and analytical step required to complete each project. The projects can be modified to cover anywhere from 2 months to 12 months lab time.
The Phytotitre natural product library
* 400 natural extracts in 96-well plate format
* Low toxicity and proven, published hit-rate
* Extensive online support for students
* Free project outlines and resources for supervisors
Give your students hands-on experience in bioassay screening and hit validation using our easy to use natural product libraries. Our collections are suitable for diverse projects in microbiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, or any other area of the Life Sciences, enabling students to learn valuable, industry-relevant techniques, and make novel discoveries along the way. Shown below are some examples of possible projects which are backed by our comprehensive method sheets and project guides:
• Students aim to discover novel antibiotics, bacteriostatic agents, or enhancers of existing antibiotics.
• Students aim to discover novel agents capable of inhibiting tumour cell-line growth, or enhancing the effects of existing chemotherapy drugs.
• Students aim to discover novel inhibitors or activators of enzymes of interest.
• Students aim to discover novel modulators of inflammatory cytokine release from cultured macrophage cell-lines.
If you would like to learn more about the project guides and method sheet options available, please click on the links to the student-facing pages for respective projects in the table above.
We also offer free access to real-world datasets from our own internal screening campaigns. These make excellent “dry” computer-based projects for students interested in drug discovery, pharmacology, chemoinformatics, data science or statistics.
• Authentic, unpublished data from natural product screens
• Suitable for final-year BSc or MSc “dry” dissertation projects
• Available for immediate download, no registration or purchase necessary
• Structured guides for data analysis and ideas for research questions are also available, free to download
Examples of suitable “dry” projects’
Give your students experience in the handling of large primary screening data sets, defining "hits" and identifying bioactive agents, calculation of assay Z prime factor, correlation analyses, 4 parameter dose curve fitting and other relevant statistical approaches. Shown below are some examples of possible dry projects which are backed by our comprehensive project guides and method sheets:
• Students seek hits in primary data from a Phytotitre 800 extract library screen for inhibitors of growth of E. coli or S. aureus.
• Students seek hits in primary data from a Puretitre 200 compound library screen for inhibitors of growth of E. coli or M. luteus.
• Students practise 4 parameter curve fitting on primary dose response data from hit compound replication studies.
• Students seek hits in primary data from Phytotitre 800 extract library screen for inhibitors of growth of the tumour cell-lines: MCF-7, PC3, HepG2 and A2780.
• Students practise 4 parameter curve fitting on primary dose response data from hit extract replication studies.
Our dry projects also connect well to library projects, for example, exploring the literature for previous reports of other properties of the hit plants or compounds that may shed light on their bioactivity or potential for translation. Compound structure files for the Puretitre screens are supplied in SDF and XLS format, enabling further extensions to projects, for example through seeking correlations between bioactivities and physicochemical data of individual compounds, or AI/machine learning projects for compound activity training and prediction.
If you would like to learn more about the project guides and method sheet options available, please click on the links to the student-facing pages for respective projects in the table above. Alternatively, please contact us to request a free Educator's Information Pack.
Our Phytotitre library is also suitable for use in large group practical classes. Simply pair with a colorimetric assay, such as a beta-galactosidase assay, or a bacterial growth assay, with the kit and allow students to practise the use of multichannel pipettes to learn the basic principles of early phase drug discovery.
Please contact us if you'd like to learn more about our suggested practical class schedules and method sheets.
• Class set-up guides available to support wet or dry practical class activities in Drug Discovery
• Variations suitable for teaching small (<20) or large (up to 150) classe sizes
• Step-by-step online method sheets to guide both lab work and data analysis
How much does the project kit cost?
One kit, comprising 400 natural extracts at 50 μl per well in 5x 96-well stock plates, costs £495 + VAT (including a 10% discount for UK academic use). Delivery is free to UK institutions.
How do I place an order?
Simply ask your purchasing team to email us with:
1) Your PO number.
2) Your invoicing and delivery addresses, including a named recipient.
3) The catalogue number and number of units of each item requested.
4) Optionally - a VAT exemption certificate, if you are claiming zero rating for use of the product in medical research.
Shipping is free to UK institutions and invoices are sent after delivery. Please feel free to email us to request a formal quotation or for more information before placing an order. We are registered suppliers to many UK universities, and will be happy to register with any we have not shipped to previously.
Do the kits come with a warranty?
Yes, all of our products are backed by a 30 day money back guarantee.
Do I have to buy any products to be able to use the screening data or “dry” project materials?
No, these are available to download free of charge from our website without purchase or registration.
How many student projects can one kit support?
Each Phytotitre project kit comprises 5 stock plates, each containing 80 extracts per plate at 50 μl each. Up to 50 screens, using a typical volume of 1 μl per assay, are therefore possible per plate. Multiple students can screen the whole collection in this way. Alternatively, 5 students could share the kit, each screening only one of the stock plates multiple times. When organised in this way, each student would be screening a different set of 80 extracts.
If we require larger quantities of individual hits after screening for follow on studies, can you provide these?
Yes, we can supply larger quantities of fresh extracts with a prompt turnaround. Please click here to view a current price list.
Do you offer any pure compound collections?
Yes, our Puretitre collection of 200 natural compounds is also available in a similar format and is suitable for student projects in the same way.
If we want to commercialise some discoveries arising from use of the kits, do we have to enter a licensing agreement with you?
No, you keep all IP you generate.
Is the use of these kits compliant with the Nagoya Protocol?
Yes. Please visit our Nagoya Protcol explainer page for further information on how screening the collection is compliant with the Nagoya Protocol regulations.
A list of files and other resources supporting our educational content is available at the File Downloads page.