BOOK REVIEW Methods in Molecular Biology Vol 486. Cell-Based Assays for High-Throughput Screening. Methods and Protocols. Editors: PA Clemons, BK Wagner, N Tolliday. Series Editor JM Walker. Humana Press 2009 £58.99 ISBN 978-1-60327-544-6 Cell-Based Assays for High-Throughput Screening is a highly practical resource, written by experts in each of the techniques. It covers much more than cell-based assays. It includes some whole organisms, for example the small plant Arabidopsis (a useful model for investi- gating plant biology and genetics), the nematode Cae- norhabditis elegans (which can be used for functional genomic studies and chemical screening) and zebrafish embryos (which are closer to mammalian systems than, for example, C. elegans). Other model systems include bacteria, reporter gene assays and flow cytometry techniques. The book covers four major areas: the model biologi- cal systems mentioned above, screening methods and assay systems, detection methods, and approaches to data analysis. It is written in the same format as the rest of the Methods in Molecular Biology series, with each chapter including a brief introduction to the subject, as well as step-by-step laboratory protocols, necessary materials and reagents, and a ‘Notes’ section with tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. This makes it very useful from a practical point of view, and anyone looking to find a new assay system will find a wealth of ideas here. High-throughput screening is an important part of the drug discovery process and by its very nature requires simple, economical and robust test systems. For those reasons, the most successful are usually enzyme- or cell-based, or use micro-organisms, since it would be impossible to use mammals in this way. In medicinal plant research, the screening tends not to involve such large numbers of samples, but there are often numerous fractions and subfractions as well as isolated compounds to test, so the principles of selecting a suitable bioassay system are very similar. Although aimed at molecular biologists, many other scientists – such as natural product chemists looking for new lead molecules – should find it equally useful. Elizabeth Williamson, Reading School of Pharmacy Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PHYTOTHERAPY RESEARCH Phytother. Res. 24: 316 (2010) Published online 18 December 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/ptr.3020

Methods in molecular biology vol 486. Cell-based assays for high-throughput screening. Methods and protocols. Editors: PA Clemons, BK Wagner, N Tolliday. Series Editor JM Walker. Humana

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Page 1: Methods in molecular biology vol 486. Cell-based assays for high-throughput screening. Methods and protocols. Editors: PA Clemons, BK Wagner, N Tolliday. Series Editor JM Walker. Humana

BOOK REVIEW

Methods in Molecular Biology Vol 486. Cell-Based Assays for High-Throughput Screening. Methods and Protocols.Editors: PA Clemons, BK Wagner, N Tolliday.Series Editor JM Walker. Humana Press 2009 £58.99ISBN 978-1-60327-544-6

Cell-Based Assays for High-Throughput Screening is a highly practical resource, written by experts in each of the techniques. It covers much more than cell-based assays. It includes some whole organisms, for example the small plant Arabidopsis (a useful model for investi-gating plant biology and genetics), the nematode Cae-norhabditis elegans (which can be used for functional genomic studies and chemical screening) and zebrafi sh embryos (which are closer to mammalian systems than, for example, C. elegans). Other model systems include bacteria, reporter gene assays and fl ow cytometry techniques.

The book covers four major areas: the model biologi-cal systems mentioned above, screening methods and assay systems, detection methods, and approaches to data analysis. It is written in the same format as the rest of the Methods in Molecular Biology series, with each

chapter including a brief introduction to the subject, as well as step-by-step laboratory protocols, necessary materials and reagents, and a ‘Notes’ section with tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. This makes it very useful from a practical point of view, and anyone looking to fi nd a new assay system will fi nd a wealth of ideas here.

High-throughput screening is an important part of the drug discovery process and by its very nature requires simple, economical and robust test systems. For those reasons, the most successful are usually enzyme- or cell-based, or use micro-organisms, since it would be impossible to use mammals in this way. In medicinal plant research, the screening tends not to involve such large numbers of samples, but there are often numerous fractions and subfractions as well as isolated compounds to test, so the principles of selecting a suitable bioassay system are very similar. Although aimed at molecular biologists, many other scientists – such as natural product chemists looking for new lead molecules – should fi nd it equally useful.

Elizabeth Williamson, Reading School of Pharmacy

PHYTOTHERAPY RESEARCHPhytother. Res. 24: 316 (2010)Published online 18 December 2009 in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/ptr.3020