Collaborations

All research groups of the Max Planck Society may participate in the COMAS either by submitting chemical compounds or by using the high-throughput screening facility. Collaboration partners enter the COMAS by signing a general cooperation agreement. This agreement specifies legal matters as well as the practical procedures for project realization. Max Planck collaboration partners pay the costs for reagents and materials and a fee for the maintenance of the infrastructure. A project-related agreement defines the working plan of the screening project.

Compound Submission

Chemical-synthesis groups may submit substances for addition to the COMAS compound library. These academic compounds will be tested in all upcoming screening campaigns as well as in a set of continuously running assays interrogating different molecular interactions and cell signaling pathways. All biological activity data will be shared. Thus, COMAS offers the opportunity to build new collaborations with biological groups.

Additionally, COMAS ensures the proper storage of substances (-20°C; 100% DMSO; under argon) and may distribute them in multiple formats to other groups. Compounds can be submitted as dry powder or 10 mM DMSO solutions, together with structural information in SMILES or SD format. If required, structures will be treated confidentially.

For submission of compounds, please contact .


High Throughput Screening

Using the COMAS 200 k compound library and the automation system, COMAS offers true high throughput screening capabilities. Any Max Planck group is eligible for collaborative screening projects. For the production of high-quality screening data, it is mandatory to develop a project plan as a collaborative effort to fully consider all biological as well as screening aspects. In the project plan, an assay pipeline covering a primary HTS compatible assay and several secondary assays for hit validation, selectivity and specificity determination is worked out.

After the primary screening, the COMAS cherry picking capabilities will be used to retrieve fresh compound aliquots from the storage system and submit them to confirmatory screening or IC50 validation (with quality control via LC-MS in parallel). Validated hit compounds will be further analyzed by the MedChem Team and may enter chemical optimization programs.

For project application/ assay development, please contact

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