To achieve simultaneous treatment of cells with IFN-b and various compound concentrations and to avoid reagent degradation over time, the screen was run in a modular manner with a precise timeline ( Figure S2 ). The first step included production of plates with appropriate concentrations of compound and IFN-b and then storage at 4uC. A separate plate was made for each of the four compound concentrations (0.24, 1.2, 6 and 30 mM). The Twister II, Sciclone, Orca, and Liconic cold storage incubator handled this step. For the second step, cells were plated at 8000 cells per well in 384-well assay plates (n = 56). This step was accomplished in seven batches (8 assay plates per batch) using the Sciclone. A uniform suspension of cells was maintained by intermittent mixing on the Sciclone deck between cell plating. Simultaneously, the compound stock plates were sealed using the Flexiseal and stacked back into a Twister II rack for storage. For the third step, cells were allowed to grow for 11 h and then were treated with compound and IFN solutions. This step required that a plate containing cells be brought from the Cytomat incubator to the Sciclone deck in concert with a set of compound/IFN dilutions plates from the cold storage incubator. Cell treatments were timed so that each assay plate would be incubated for 10.3 h before the final step of performing the luciferase assay. For this last step, robotics were programmed so that each assay plate developed the luciferase light reaction for 40 min at 25uC in the plate hotel and then was delivered to the Synergy 4 plate reader for determination of luminescence. For this assay, the BioTek EL406 washer was used for aspiration of media and dispersion of substrate. In entirety, the screen took 41.6 h to complete.