The variety of different assay protocols for HTS is increasing constantly. Today's automated systems need to be flexible and cleverly designed to accommodate a large number of different protocols without major delays or costs involved.
To prevent obsolescence, an automated system should be flexible enough to accommodate today's assays as well as new protocols and hardware. The BioCel System described in the new technical note includes a selection of liquid handlers and readers, and an active environmental control for the entire system. A multimode reader, bulk reagent dispensers, plate washer and the Agilent Vertical Pipetting Station allow assays to be run in 96-, 384- or 1536-format.
The active environmental control used by the Agilent BioCel System allows assays to be run at constant temperature (ambient up to 37°C), avoiding edge effects often caused by transport into and out of incubators. The high precision, low volume pipettor and the large plate storage capacity allow the compound plate bank to be run alongside the assay, adding the compounds on-the-fly. No prior assay plate generation is necessary and due to the low volume capacity of the Vertical Pipetting Station (200nL), DMSO concentrations in the assay are kept low.
For a copy of the new technical note please visit www.chem.agilent.com/Library/applications/5990-3619en_lo%20CMS.pdf
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