Screening automation plate readers

Early laboratory robots were unreliable, but today, these systems perform quite well. Today s robots simply move plates from one robot-friendly position to another, such as the entrance pad of a plate reader. These simplified movements combined with the low weight of a plate allow engineering to simplify the robot designs. As seen in industrial application of robots, robots that are defined and used for a specific application will work day in and day out quite well. It is always best to keep the automation as simple as possible to get the highest level of performance. This is usually accomplished by minimizing the number of moveable parts associated with the automation. Stackers have also become more reliable. This was due, in part, to the standardization of the microplate by an effort of the Society for Biomolecular Screening (Danbury, CT, U.S.A.) in association with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI, Washington, DC, U.S.A.), but also due to the use of simpler stacker mechanisms. Today, there are many choices for devices, workstations, and fully automated systems. The selection as to which automated devices to purchase for HTS should be driven by a clear set of specifications that define the use of the automation. The choices can be expensive, and therefore, replacement may not be possible, so it is important to choose well. 

FIGURE 11.3 Levels of screen automation, (a) Workstation-based automation can be categorized as (1) batch automation in which plate stackers feed assay plates into each device and plate stacks are transported between devices manually and (2) automated workstations that include liquid dispensers and readers and can transfer plates between the two devices automatically, (b) In a fully automated system, transport of plates between devices is carried out by robotic arms and scheduling software. 

A similar experiment was performed in a 96-well plate format. The components of the polymerization mixture were the same except for the solvent (CH3CN was used instead of CH2C12). The polymerization was thermally initiated. The solutions were dispensed using a pipetting robot (Fig. 7.7) and the supernatants analyzed in series by HPLC-UV or in parallel with a plate reader. Eleven WellMIPs were prepared and screened for each monomer. As seen in Fig. 7.9, the reproducibility of the automated procedure is good and the fast parallel assessment delivers similar results as the serial analysis by HPLC. 

The standardization of the footprint and the relative position of the weUs on a plate, as recommended by the Society of Biomolecular Screening (SBS), was tremendously helpful in developing the automation tools needed for HTS, such as dispensers, pipettors, plate readers, and plate transportation, although there are a few laboratories and biotechnology companies that use specially designed plates (such as 864-well, 2080-well, 3455-well or 9600-weU plates). 

In addition, further automation will be needed in what is still very much a hands-on art. Autoinjectors coupled to complete analytical data systems and readers for 96-well plates are the beginning of what will continue to be a necessary trend of residue chemistry. The application of the techniques of combinatorial chemistry/biochemistry, which has produced screening methodology for handling many variables, might be appropriate to residue chemistry. 

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