Integration of RNAi and Small Molecule Screens to Identify Targets for Drug Development

Cellular models for siRNA and small molecule high throughput screening have been widely used in the last decade to identify targets for drug discovery. As an example, we present a two-fold readout approach based on cell viability and multipolar phenotype. To maximize the discovery of potential targets and at the same time reduce the number of false positives in our dataset, we have combined focused and rationally designed custom siRNA libraries with small molecule inhibitor libraries. Here we describe a cellular model for centrosome amplification as an example of how to design and perform a multiple readout/multiple screening strategy.