Use of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curves to Evaluate High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Methodologies

• Activity Number: 238
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 2, 2010 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Biopharmaceutical Section
• Author(s): Satya R. Siddani*+
• Companies: Merck & Co., Inc.
• Keywords: Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) ; High Throughput Screening (HTS)

Abstract

In High Throughput Screening (HTS), several thousands of compounds are examined in a preliminary search to unearth potential candidate drugs. Typically, there are no more than 1 or 2 replicates per compound, making it difficult to assess variability. In addition, there are external sources of variability such as plate effects, which are adjusted using methodologies such as Median Polish. However, the ability to identify and confirm hits depends on the applicability of the HTS methodology to the data. Currently, there is no consensus as to which technique may be a gold standard. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves are used to compare several HTS methodologies. In this work, we will use ROC curves to examine the ability of HTS methods to detect true hits. In particular, we will explore scenarios corresponding to different sources of variability and the rate of hits per plate.