Echo® 555 Liquid Handler

In this technical note, the utility of the Labcyte Echo Liquid Handler to accurately dispense a variety of cell lines to ensure uniformity and viability for cell-based applications is demonstrated. The addition of Histodenz™ maintained the cells in suspension in the source plate to provide a stable and homogeneous cell solution through the dispense step. The Labcyte Echo Liquid Handler provides high-quality cell dispensing and provides a robust, automated solution for situations in which biological material is limited or non-contact cell dispensing is required.

Serial microsampling of animals reduces the overall number of animals sampled and euthanized for toxicology studies. Traditional composite studies in mice can require up to 700 μL of blood for each time point in a pharmacokinetic study. A draw of 700 μL from a mouse would require the animal to be euthanized and often require the use of addition “satellite” animals to complete the study. Thus, in a 9-point time course analysis of mouse plasma, nine mice would be sacrificed. In response to programs like the EU 3Rs initiative to reduce the use of animals in research researchers have turned to microsampling as an alternative to composite studies. With advances in bioanalytical techniques drug levels can be determined from samples of 20 μL or less. This small sample volume or microsample enables reduces the dependency on satellite animals to complete a study. Additionally, microsampling is faster and less stressful than traditional composite studies.

This study describes use of the IntelliCyt iQue Screener HD and MultiCyt® 4-Plex Apoptosis Screening Kit in conjunction with the Labcyte Echo liquid handler, to simultaneously detect 4 different apoptosis endpoints in Jurkat cells in both 384- and 1536-well formats.

To enable the transfer of large quantities of fluid using acoustic liquid handling, Labcyte is developing a companion consumable, the multi-well Reagent Reservoir (RES). This study characterizes fluid transfer from a RES prototype for volumes on the scale of nano- to microliters per destination well. Additionally, to demonstrate the combined performance capabilities of the RES and the Echo® 525, a 2-fold dilution quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was performed.

Recently identified associations between variants of cancer genes and drug resistance have increased the value for comprehensive drug sensitivity screening in combination with molecular profiling of cancer cells. Echo® Liquid Handlers use acoustic energy to provide high throughput, non-contact, liquid handling for a range of applications. This poster discusses the implementation of miniaturized drug sensitivity screening, at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Finland (FIMM), with assay-ready plates produced by the Echo liquid handler.

Large-scale, high-throughput siRNA experiments require a transfer system that can facilitate reliable and reproducible transfections in high-density well-plate formats, as well as effective delivery of the siRNA molecule. This application note demonstrates superior performance of the Echo liquid handler compared to more traditional liquid handling methods for standard, reverse and lipid-free transfection of siRNA molecules into mammalian cells.

The ability of Echo liquid handlers to acoustically transfer samples and reagents without tips or contact provides an efficient, contamination-free solution for genomic library preparation. This poster describes use of the Echo 555 liquid handler to prepare libraries produced from E.coli for sequencing with the Illumina® MiSeq sequencer.

This application note demonstrates transfer of enzymes, buffers, microsomes, inhibitors and substrates in small volumes using the Echo 500 series of liquid handlers, providing a sensitive and robust assay. Comparable IC50 values for four known CYP3A4 inhibitors are presented.

Cisbio’s HTRF assay technology has a wide range of applications in cell-based and biochemical assays. These assays are readily adaptable to high-throughput screening in 384-well and 1536-well formats. This application note demonstrated how the Echo liquid handler enables the miniaturization of HTRF assays to 2 µL assay volumes in 1536-well microplates. Reagents and compounds were transferred at 2.5 nL increments, which enabled flexibility in assay setup and reduced reagent costs.

This application note demonstrates how the Echo liquid handler enables protein crystal formation with sitting drop volumes as small as 50 nL. Nanoliter volumes of protein and crystallography reagents can be transferred into sitting drop wells of crystallography plates. Precise and accurate drop placement eliminates cross contamination and ensures drop-on-drop placement for blending protein and crystallography solutions. Precise transfer of reagents ensures repeatable crystallization trials.

Dr Chris Bakal, Team Leader at The Institute of Cancer Research, UK, discusses his research on cancer cell proliferation and signaling and how the lab utilizes automation technology for miniaturization and high throughput screening of complex cell assays.

Watch Arif Butt, CEO of SelectScience, and Kerry Parker, SelectScience's Editor-in-Chief, present the award for #MyPharmaVote to Mark Fischer-Colbrie, President and CEO of Labcyte. The Labcyte Echo® 555 Liquid Handler was voted as the winner by scientists at SLAS2015.

Learn more about the Echo 555 Acoustic Droplet Ejection system and the Echo 1536 low dead volume source plate from Labcyte. The Echo 555 provides non-contact liquid handling transfers from as many as 660,000 wells per day. The 1536 achieves 50% less dead volume with at least 15% higher throughput than its predecessor. SBS 2010 interview.

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