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Noel Ruppert, Beckman Coulter, Inc. A customer needed a Biomek FX Workstation that could perform compound screens, plate reformatting, serial dilutions and cell-based assays. This article describes a SAMI® Workstation EX system that was designed to accomplish these applications for the customer as shown (Figure A).
This automated solution utilized a Dual Arm Multi-Channel configuration to best satisfy the customer's needs for functionality and throughput. A 384-channel head was put into Pod 1 and a 96-channel head was used in Pod 2. The latter could be used either with disposable tips or interchanged with fixed tips using an HDR tool. In addition to plate reformatting, the customer needed to perform serial dilutions using both pods. To accomplish this, the Project Management team facilitated the design of custom drop down menus that enabled the use of both pods for the serial dilution step. For a description of the Serial Dilution step, see "A Custom Serial Dilution Step" in the November 2004 issue of the T3 Update. The team learned during this installation that the serial dilution step will not track data in a way that is usable with the SAMI EX environment. Consequently, the team recommends that if data tracking is required, the serial dilution method needs to occur within the Biomek FX standalone environment. The use of the HDR tool in the SAMI EX workstation also presented a new challenge. Specifically, the offset grips used with the installed HDR tool differ from those used with the disposable tip head. SAMI will be unable to distinguish between the two types of heads. It can only see the right pod and so will move and grip in the same way regardless of the currently installed head. To avoid any complications, the moves by the right pod to devices requiring an offset move (e.g., to the ELx405 washer) were disabled. For this customer, that meant the plates used in cell-based assays coming out of the Cytomat 2 needed to be placed on the deck within reach of the left pod for movement to the ELx405 washer. This gripper work-around satisfactorily met the needs of the customer. For additional information on the features and value proposition for the SAMI Workstation EX, see "SAMI Workstation EX 'Biomek Evolved'" in the March 2005 issue of T3 Update. For Research Use Only; not for use in diagnostic procedures. For comments or questions about T3 Update, please contact David Daniels, Ph.D., editor.
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