Liquid Handling at the HTSKC

New HTS Robotic System in Sarafan ChEM-H W008

Instrument iLab Schedules: Multidrop, Wellmate, PlateWasher, Velocity11 VPrep, Agilent Bravo System and/or Plate Sealer.

The High-Throughput Screening Knowledge Center (HTSKC) has the ability to run microplate based small molecule screens in a fully automated mode with the Caliper Life Sciences (formerly Zymark, now part of Perkin Elmer) Sciclone ALH3000 liquid handler integrated system. For siRNA screens we have an Agilent Bravo system . We also have stand alone instrumentation with stackers for running screens in "workstation" mode.

Staccato Integrated System

Staccato System

More photos of integrated system. Click for larger images.

SciClone ALH3000

Staccato System

Liconic Automated Incubator

Twister Access to system

Twister Access to Incubator

96-tip Pipetting Head

Multidrop and Plate Washer/Dispenser

Delidder

Twister II

The SciClone ALH3000 robot can accommodate either 96- or 384-tip manifolds, enabling it to rapidly pipet volumes to 96-, 384-, and 1536-well microplates. It also has a Z8 module that contains eight independent syringe-based pipets, allowing liquid transfers to other formats (e.g. 6-well plates or racks of tubes) from either microplates or tubes. The main pipetting head includes a gripper tool that permits the movement of microplates and disposable tip boxes from any of the 20 deck positions. With this configuration, the Sciclone can add reagents to any microplate format, complete microplate replications and dilutions, and perform “hit picking” tasks (the transfer of a single sample from any position in a microplate or rack of tubes to any other microplate or tube). In addition, the Sciclone pipetting head has the ability to pick up disposable tips in any format (i.e. a subset of the tips in a 96- or 384-tip box), which allows the use of multiple tips for rapid serial dilutions. We also have integrated a V&P Scientific 384 Pin Tool that is capable of 50-200 nL transfers.

A Twister II robotic arm is integrated to the Sciclone ALH3000. The Twister II is equipped with six 40-microplate stackers and is capable of shuttling microplates to and from the Sciclone deck. The twister integrates a Titertek Multidrop dispenser and an Bio-Tek ELx406 platewasher/dispenser with the Sciclone permitting the unattended, seamless completion of complex experimental protocols, maximizing the efficiency of this liquid-handling system. Cell-based assays are further supported by the addition of a carbon dioxide incubator to the Sciclone pipetting deck. This modification enables the automated shuttling of microplates between a cell culture-compatible environment, the Sciclone deck, the Multidrop dispenser, and the ELx406 microplate washer/dispenser, making it possible to automate an entire cell-based assay. Finally, the twister robot is integrated to a Molecular Devices Analyst GT multimode plate reader. This allows for full automation of most assays.