dragonfly® discovery

In this poster, see how Uncommon, a UK-based biotech company, worked to develop low-cost, animal-free media.

Explore how SPT Labtech’s dragonfly® discovery, paired with PeptiMatrix™ synthetic peptide hydrogel, provides a high-precision, automated solution for 3D cell culture. This method ensures accurate low-volume dispensing of viscous hydrogels, preserving cell viability and supporting consistent spheroid and organoid formation. Proven with MCF7 breast cancer and HepG2 liver cancer cells, the workflow delivers reproducible results for high-throughput drug screening, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.

Genomics research has come a long way in recent years, supported by ever-evolving technologies which aim to mitigate on-going challenges such as increased R&D costs, achieving greater throughput, and the need for reproducible and reliable experimental results.

Miniaturization has been a major step forward in tackling issues with laborious manual sample preparation and is particularly feasible for next-generation sequencing library preparation due to the sensitivity and precision of the enzymes involved.

In this SelectScience guide, discover how SPT Labtech’s automated platforms are revolutionizing liquid handling and providing consistency across multiple users within the same facility, or even across different sites.

Download this SelectScience guide to learn about:

• Key automation & miniaturization considerations
• Miniaturization & automation of NGS library prep
• Miniaturized library prep for high-throughput screening
• Accurate, miniaturized DNA quantification assays
• Low-volume, single-cell RNA-seq library prep
• Proven miniaturization of NGS methods

Resource details:

• Document type: SelectScience guide
• Page count: 31
• Read time: 47 mins
• Edition: 2nd

3D cell culture has become an essential tool for advancing research in biology, medicine, and drug discovery. Learn how automation and positive displacement technology improves throughput and scalability in 3D cell culture development through accurate and reliable dispensing of hydrogels and cell suspensions.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are developing high-throughput methods for culturomics analysis of the vaginal microbiome to improve women's health. They aim to understand the intra-species diversity of Lactobacillus crispatus by isolating single strains. In this application note, SPT Labtech highlights how using dragonfly® discovery can benefit this process through rapid, small-volume, molten agar dispensing into 384-well plates followed by single-cell culture inoculation. Compatible with any SBS plate format up to 44 mm in height across 96-, 384- and 1,536-well plates, the dragonfly discovery boasts accurate dispensing irrespective of liquid viscosity.

Repetitive manual pipetting increases the risk of staff injury, introduces human error and inaccuracies between researchers, and can waste time and costs that could be spent more productively elsewhere.

This guide provides all the information you need to choose the best technologies for your lab and its applications and make the transition to automated liquid handling as smooth as possible. Download now to explore content including:

• Benefits of automated liquid handling
• Key automation questions
• Volume & liquid type considerations
• Choosing a system
• Space, investment & maintenance
• Running applications & support
• Pipetting technology comparison
• Support for your applications

In this application note, SPT Labtech provides an introduction to miniaturization and automation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) library preparation workflows. NGS has revolutionized the biological and medical sciences, offering superior throughput and greater affordability. Although there has been a considerable drop in the cost of whole-genome sequencing, and the time required, the fundamentals of NGS library preparation remain largely unchanged.

NGS workflows require precise and accurate liquid handling to support both high-throughput demands and sample preservation. Download this application note to learn how to automate and miniaturize NGS workflows, using dynamic, low-volume liquid handling solutions to ensure optimal sequencing depth and coverage for any application.

In this scientific poster, SPT Labtech demonstrates how the dragonfly® discovery is able to enable and accelerate early-stage drug discovery processes. This poster addresses a wide range of applications within functional genomics, phenotypic and biochemical assay workflows.

In this case study, TTP Labtech combine the speed and accuracy of the dragonfly® discovery dispenser with the flexible planning and data aggregation capabilities of Synthace’s Antha software to unlock the possibility of physically executing a 6-factor space-filling DoE to comprehensively characterise the design space for an enzymatic assay in a single rapid experiment.

In this poster, SPT Labtech compare the performance in dispensing different liquids both by hand and by using the dragonfly® discovery automated pipettor. The benefits in its utility in running complex design of experiments leading to faster assay development, in addition to obtaining more robust assays is also highlighted.

With 25 years of trusted innovation, SPT Labtech continues to advance scientific discovery through intelligent, high-precision automation. In this SelectScience interview, Caroline Wickramasinghe, Senior Product Manager for Core Liquid Handling, highlights two of the company’s flagship innovations: the dragonfly® discovery and mosquito®. Together, these liquid handling systems exemplify how intuitive software, robust engineering, and scalable automation are empowering scientists to adapt to new workflows, such as 3D cell culture, efficiently and with exceptional reproducibility.

This video was filmed at SLAS 2026.

SPT Labtech tutorial product development scientist Maryia Karpiyevich, explains how the dragonfly® discovery leverages innovative dispensing technology to dispense the Matrigel® and PeptiMatrix™ hydrogels with ease and precision.

Discover how genomics researchers can miniaturize NGS methods to increase throughput and lower costs using the combination of the mosquito® and dragonfly® automated liquid handlers from SPT Labtech in this interview with Field Application Scientist, Chris Waddling. Hear how the combination of mosquito's highly accurate positive displacement pipetting with dragonfly's non-contact, nanoliter-to-milliliter dispensing provides a solution for laboratories looking to scaleup throughput, and learn about the benefits of these instruments in the field of genomics and beyond.

This video was filmed at SLAS2023, San Diego.

In this video, Paul Lomax and Donald Ogg from SPT Labtech discuss the dragonfly liquid handling and mosquito reagent dispensing platforms and share how they can be seamlessly used in combination to increase throughput and flexibility of workflows, whilst reducing costs.

This video was filmed at SLAS Europe 2022

In this presentation filmed at SLAS2020, Merck scientists Tina Minnick and Liudmila Dzhekieva share examples of how they have used the dragonfly discovery liquid handler from STP Labtech in various drug discovery settings and highlight its advantages, including ease-of-use and very quick cleanup.

'I love my job because I get to interact with so many scientists in so many different fields.' Chris Waddling, a field application scientist with SPT Labtech, discusses the importance of working side-by-side with customers in order to ensure that the lab products it develops enable scientists to work effectively and get the most accurate data possible.

This interview was filmed at SLAS2020 - watch other highlights from the show here >>

In this video, Shama Chilakwad, an EngD candidate at Synthace Ltd., describes how SPT Labtech's dragonfly discovery automated the execution of an experiment that used a Design of Experiments (DOE) framework. The dragonfly dispensed fluid rapidly and was able to generate large datasets efficiently.

This interview was filmed at SLAS2020 - watch other highlights from the show here >>

David Newble, Managing Director, SPT Labtech, discusses emerging trends and novel techniques in life sciences and drug discovery and how unique technologies and automation solutions from SPT Labtech are set to transform the efficiency of laboratory workflows and infrastructures. From next-generation sequencing (NGS) miniaturization to the expansion of cryo-electron microscopy and the networking of automated biobanking, find out what could soon be changing in and around your lab.

This interview was filmed at SLAS2020 - watch other highlights from the show here >>

In this video, Anne Hammerstein, Product Manager at SPT Labtech, provides an overview of the dragonfly discovery and how this technology is designed to provide reliability, simplicity, versatility and improved productivity to your assay development. Nina Grossman, Head of Laboratory at Merck Healthcare KGaA, then explains how the dragonfly discovery liquid handling system is used in the Department of Discovery Technologies to improve efficiency in the development of high-throughput screening (HTS) assays that target protein-protein interactions.

The SPT Labtech (formerly TTP Labtech) dragonfly® discovery liquid dispenser is designed to help overcome bottlenecks in drug discovery. Learn how this versatile system can be used to develop complex assays as well as assay validation and improve the efficiency of high-throughput screening. In this interview, product manager, Dr. Anne Hammerstein, shares exciting news about upcoming innovations that will help to further improve drug discovery workflows, including new auto feed reservoirs.

Video filmed at SLAS Europe 2019 – visit the SelectScience special feature for more videos from the event.

Miniaturization and automated liquid handling transform NGS workflows for precious sample processing

Rob Walton, CEO of SPT Labtech, shares how a customer-centric approach is shaping the next generation of life science research and inspiring ingenuity

This guest editorial outlines how the collaboration between Camena Bioscience and SPT Labtech is driving innovation in the field of DNA synthesis

This guest editorial from SPT Labtech introduces the Labtech Unplugged podcast series, sharing real-world stories of labs worldwide implementing sustainable practices

Achieving precision with positive displacement liquid handling and miniaturization

Former Illumina Senior Executive and current SPT Labtech board member, Paula Dowdy discusses the importance of collaborating to develop automated liquid handling solutions and other advances in sequencing technology

We’ve highlighted lab product reviews of drug discovery lab solutions that could benefit your workflows and research

The initiative aims to help reduce reagent and material requirements for high-throughput genome sequencing

Watch this on-demand webinar to find out how to use the dragonfly discovery to set up robust high-throughput assays quickly