Powering genomic, proteomic, and drug discovery workflows at the nanolitre scale

My name is Brian Kirk, General Manager at BioDot. Our mission is to miniaturize all of science.

For a very long time, we’ve helped people around the world miniaturize medical diagnostics, including lateral flow devices, biosensors, and microarrays. Now, we’re excited to be moving into the laboratory with our technology.

NANOlab was developed because of this. Over two years of development went into our nanolitre disposable tip. For a very long time, we’ve had technology that was meant for manufacturing. Now, we have a true disposable for our technology, or for our instrumentation, and because of that, we wanted to build a true liquid handler for nanolitre volumes.

With NANOlab, we can now dispense liquid droplets down to 50 nanolitres in a single droplet. This is really important when you start to think about emerging technologies and applications in basic research. Whether it be single-cell applications in proteomics, NGS, or genomics, you want to have technology that can not only do low-volume dispensing, but do it at high speed and high precision.

When we think about NANOlab and what it can do for customers, what we’re really seeing is a huge demand in drug screening. These are environments where drug developers are trying to screen as many compounds as possible over a period of time. Usually, that work is done with titrations or serial dilutions, and often the current paradigm is to take nanolitre dispensing and combine it with traditional liquid handlers. So, you have a large workflow with multiple workstations.

NANOlab has the ability to do all that in a single workflow and a single instrument, so we’re really excited.

When we think about liquid handling and the future of liquid handling in basic research, two things come to mind. One is volume. Being able to dispense low volumes is critical for the future, the development, and the scale of human biology. As we have more questions and want to answer them more thoroughly, being able to generate more data per square inch is critical. When you’re dispensing nanolitres versus microlitres, you get that capability.

What was important about NANOlab is that we created a disposable tip. When you’re doing genomic workflows, proteomic workflows, or single-cell workflows, any concern of contamination and cross-contamination from sample to sample is a challenge. That’s why we spent so much time developing the disposable tip, and we’re excited to have it.

How does BioDot’s NANOlab nanolitre liquid handler support high-throughput drug discovery and screening workflows?

NANOlab™ enables drug developers to screen many compounds by performing titrations and serial dilutions on a single instrument. It dispenses droplets down to 50 nanolitres with high speed and precision, replacing multi-workstation workflows that combine nanolitre dispensers with traditional liquid handlers. This integrated approach streamlines drug screening, increases throughput, and helps generate richer datasets from small sample volumes.

What advantages does BioDot’s NANOlab disposable-tip technology offer for genomics, proteomics, and single-cell research?

NANOlab™ uses a nanolitre disposable tip developed over two years to minimize contamination and cross-contamination between samples. This is critical for sensitive genomic, proteomic, and single-cell workflows. By pairing disposable tips with precise 50-nanolitre dispensing, researchers can confidently run complex assays, protect sample integrity, and generate more data per square inch in basic research applications.

How does BioDot’s mission to miniaturize science influence NANOlab liquid handling for life sciences and NGS applications?

BioDot’s mission to miniaturize science led to adapting its manufacturing-grade dispensing technology into a true nanolitre liquid handler for laboratories. NANOlab™ delivers 50-nanolitre droplets with high precision, enabling miniaturized workflows in life sciences, NGS, genomics, and single-cell proteomics. By reducing volumes from microlitres to nanolitres, NANOlab™ helps researchers scale experiments, increase data density, and unlock new possibilities in biological discovery.