Application purpose and introduction
High quality PCR measurements are often required to determine very accurate results of biological composition of virus particles, DNA complexes, proteins and other relevant substances. Often is the quality of the result limited by the ability of the operator who processes the samples necessary for the reaction mix. In a lot of environments this is perfectly fine. Processing a lot of samples in a high-throughput laboratory environment is very important and can be limited by poor measurement and process speed. This limitation is often not very well received and automation would be the next logical step.
This platform will wait for you and your samples for 24 hours a day. You will have the ability to ‘feed’ this system sample plates, provide the necessary sample information and it will start right away with processing your samples. The ability to queue whole stacks of plates to be measured makes this system a very powerful and very flexible solution.Just introduce your sample in the system and you will receive an email telling you that your data is ready to be picked up at the pre-determined spot. In the meantime your operators will be able to work on other important tasks or activities.
Our innovative software
PlateButler® Manager will take care of all necessary transfers within the system. It will schedule the handling of labware and the execution of methods on your devices in a way that these devices will never stay unoccupied as long as there is labware to process. Do you have samples prepared in between other samples which are already queued in the system? No problem you can plan them to be handled directly after the next few samples are finished.
No need to keep track of reservations of single devices or other complex and annoying logistics regarding operator usage. Just put your devices in the system and let it handle your samples whenever you want. This system will not be limited to any amount of devices nor will it be limited to sample storage space. This system can be extended as far as you want and in the shape of your wishes.
How does this solution work in practice
Preferably a super user will do a software start-up of the system at the beginning of the week or month by selecting a specific script. When the script is started by the super user the regular users can start ‘feeding’ the system with plates containing their prepared DNA samples. Users will open up the inventory window and enter specific sample information e.g. name of the sample, device method and location of the data to be saved.
When that is done the system will start right away with the first set of samples loaded into the storage. A storage unit can be of any size and can even be cooled or heated to preserve sample integrity. When sample plates are measured they are either put back into the storage or dropped into a waste bin. After a successful measurement the system will notice the user that the acquired data is ready and transferred to the designated spot. This can be a local drive, a network drive or even a spot in the cloud or some other virtual laboratory environment.
The great benefit from a system that is able to handle sample plates in an instant is that users can directly process their prepared plates no matter what time of the day. In addition users have the ability to focus on other duties or responsibilities in the meantime.