Through the Eye of a Needle – Labcyte Awarded U. S. Patent Describing the Acoustic Transfer of Droplets into Small Openings
7 Nov 2008Labcyte Inc., the pioneer in ’touchless’ acoustic transfer of liquids, announces the issuance of U.S. Patent 7,405,395 which exploits the unique advantages of using sound to move liquids. This patent describes the acoustic transfer of fluid droplets into openings less than 300 microns in diameter.
“We have exquisite capabilities for directing a droplet exactly to where we want it,” said Chief Technical Officer, Richard Ellson. “We can easily direct a droplet of almost any liquid into an extremely small opening or lay it onto a complex surface such as a stent. We have been able to position droplets with better than 10 micron accuracy.
“The Labcyte® acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) technology used in our Echo® Series 500 liquid handlers has quickly become the method of choice for sample transfer in high-throughput screening laboratories in the pharmaceutical industry. This latest patent shows how our acoustic technology can be used to load mass spectrometers or to fill shallow wells in a low-volume assay plate or even to place fluids into the recesses of stents and other medical devices.”
“We believe that the spatial precision covered by this patent plus the proven capabilities to move a wide variety of liquids robustly with extraordinary precision and accuracy is making the technology appropriate for many companies for a wide variety of applications beyond the current uses in drug discovery, genomics and proteomics.”
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Echo® 520 Liquid Handler
Beckman Coulter Life SciencesImagine preparing assay plates for siRNA screening, compound screening with biochemical and cell-based assays, PCR reactions and more all on a single liquid handling platform, with no tips and no cross-contamination. Labcyte has developed new acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) parameters that deliver built-in intelligence to enable users to transfer many different fluid types from a single instrument. All Echo systems come pre-calibrated so that you can switch among different fluid types with just a click of the mouse. No further adjustment is required for you to be productive immediately. These developments combine the latest discoveries in wavelength, power and timing requirements for ADE with real-time fluid measurement at multiple points during a run. The resulting algorithms solve some of the most significant liquid handling challenges with volatile, low-surface tension and/or meniscus-shifting fluids. Volumetric accuracy and precision for all fluids tested so far—including buffers, nucleic acid and protein solutions, surfactants, serum and cell culture media—are comparable to established performance with DMSO. The Echo® 520 liquid handler delivers the same superior precision and accuracy as the award-winning 550 and 555 models, for laboratories with lower throughput needs. Like the Echo 550 and Echo 555 liquid handlers, the Echo 520 uses "touchless" ADE transfer technology. ADE uses sound energy to transfer 2.5 nL droplets from Echo-qualified 384- and 1536-well source plates into 96-, 384-, 1536- and 3456-well destination plates. This unique touchless technology eliminates consumable tip costs, washing, and cross-contamination. Unsurpassed volumetric precision (≤ 8% CV) and accuracy (≤ 10% CV) ensure superior results. Independent studies have shown that Echo liquid handlers eliminate false negatives due to sample loss on tip surfaces in low-concentration transfers. The Echo 520 liquid handler reports source well volume, but does not report DMSO hydration values. Applications: • Compound management • Compound screening • siRNA screening • Biochemical assays • Cell-based assays • PCR • Genotyping • Gene expression