SPT Labtech and BellBrook Labs recently announced a collaboration to advance cancer research. Together, the companies have developed a miniaturized, high-throughput screening platform for the discovery and profiling of Vacuolar protein sorting associated protein 4B (VPS4B) ATPase inhibitors, addressing a critical bottleneck in early-stage oncology drug discovery.

VPS4B has emerged as a high-priority therapeutic target in oncology due to its overexpression in specific tumors and its synthetic-lethal relationship with its paralog, VPS4A, but despite its potential, the industry has so far lacked robust, scalable screening approaches to identify effective inhibitors.

The new miniaturized platform addresses this challenge by combining BellBrook Labs’ Transcreener ADP² fluorescence polarization assay with SPT Labtech’s  dragonfly discovery system. The Transcreener assay enables direct, homogeneous detection of ADP with high sensitivity, while SPT Labtech’s dragonfly discovery system for automated reagent dispensing offers a precise and scalable solution. The combined solution is capable of operating in 384- and 1536-well formats, improving data quality over manual approaches, while significantly minimizing reagent consumption and cost. High-throughput screening on this platform enabled identification of 13 novel VPS4B inhibitors, which can be further evaluated using SPT Labtech’s mosquito liquid handling platform for rapid, robust follow-up testing.

Justin Brink, President of BellBrook Labs, commented: “Our collaboration with SPT Labtech is a response to the industry’s need for smarter, more resource-efficient drug discovery. Through a combination of our Transcreener technology with the precision of the dragonfly discovery platform, we have significantly lowered the barriers to VPS4B screening, allowing researchers to dramatically reduce reagent consumption while maintaining the high Z’ values and data sensitivity required for reliable hit identification. It’s a game-changer for any biotech or pharma team targeting these complex ATPases.”

“Building on 25 years of positive displacement technology, we are supporting our customers to achieve faster, more efficient liquid handling, laying the foundation for the next generation of laboratory automation,” said Joby Jenkins, Chief Technology Officer at SPT Labtech. “Our latest collaboration with BellBrook Labs demonstrates the power of combining industry-leading assay chemistry with world-class liquid handling. By miniaturizing the VPS4B assay without compromising data quality, we are providing Pharma and Biotech companies with a truly scalable path toward new cancer therapeutics.

SPT Labtech’s solutions are built to accelerate progress in genomics where demand for high-throughput and cost-effective workflows is ever-increasing. The company specializes in developing compact, user-friendly liquid handling platforms that specifically address the challenges of genomics applications, particularly in next-generation sequencing (NGS). Their flagship firefly platform simplifies complex workflows like NGS library preparation by integrating multiple functions—such as pipetting, dispensing, and incubating—into a single benchtop unit. Through strategic collaborations with key industry partners, SPT Labtech ensures its technologies are validated and optimized for a wide range of genomic chemistries, further cementing its position as a vital player in empowering genomics labs to achieve greater efficiency, reproducibility, and innovation. https://www.sptlabtech.com/

BellBrook Labs provides innovative high-throughput screening solutions that accelerate drug discovery. Their Transcreener platform is the gold standard for monitoring the activity of enzymes that produce ADP, such as ATPases and kinases. https://bellbrooklabs.com/