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We’re bringing another year to a close with this final issue of the T3 newsletter. We provided you with the chance to let us hear what you want in this newsletter and we’ve listened! The business and development centers, partners and customers have provided us all with a lot of new Tips, Tricks and Techniques that have filled the pages of the T3 newsletter. With all that we’ve shared with you, you’ve got no choice but to get more out of your liquid handling platform. In this final issue, in our Applications Section, we highlight applications that have been developed for the Biomek 3000, our lower cost, smaller footprint workstation that utilizes the same Biomek software used on the Biomek NX and FX platforms. As becomes readily apparent from reading this section, the Biomek 3000 is a workhorse for sample prep automation regardless of whether the sample is DNA, RNA or protein! Bob McLaren from our strategic partner, Promega Corp shares with us several new features he has built into the automation of Promega’s DNA IQ system on the Biomek 3000 for prep automation for forensics samples. Take a close look; there are new methods and new features that improve on the performance of the system. Zhu Zhu and Keith Roby share the highlights of the new target RNA prep for gene expression analysis on Affy GeneChips. The new automated methods have been improved on those published for the ArrayPlex on the smaller footprint Biomek 3000, without sacrifice of quality or throughput. Methods improvements include the integration of the Agencourt magnetic bead-based cleanup steps. We round out the applications section with a description of the automation for protein sample prep for Ciphergen Protein Chips by Mark Garner. More Tools! In the Automation Product section, Bob Lund provides us with the latest updates on Span-8 syringes, P30XL tips and translations for Automation Quick Start guides. The Product Development teams at the Beckman Coulter Facility in Indianapolis have been very busy this year delivering solutions for our automation customers. Custom Tools! In the Integrated Solutions section, Jana Oak provides us with descriptions of some most exciting new custom tools that have been developed to meet specific customer needs. These include the new Biomek PowerPack software solution, the new options for pin tools and tube septum piercing. Neil Tiedeman wraps up this section with a description of the maintenance programs for the ELx405 washer from BioTek. If you can imagine it, we can build it! In our Project Management section, Mendy Van Deusen, Jaime Buencamino, Marc Goldstein and Mike Ashley describe how tools from the Beckman Coulter tool box can be assembled into custom solutions to met specific customer needs. Using the Biomek FX Assay Workstation, the project management teams have delivered solutions for their customers for protein binding assays or homogeneous enzymatic assays that take advantage of scheduling software built into SAMI EX. Take a closer look! I’m still on the look for new content for issues of the T3 newsletter to be published in 2006! Send me your article (Tip, Trick or Technique) before Lab Auto 2006 and you’ll be eligible for the drawing for an iPOD at our booth during the show.
About the editor: My academic training was focused on transcriptional regulation in prokaryotic systems. I defined the essential elements in overlapping promoter DNA sequences in E. coli (Ph.D. in Biology, U.C. Irvine, 1981-1987) and defined specific amino acid – nucleotide contacts made between a developmentally regulated sigma subunit of RNA polymerase and its cognate promoter DNA in B. subtilis (post-doc, Harvard Biolabs, 1987-1991). I left academia to join Beckman Instruments in December 1991, with a goal to develop an alternative DNA amplification technology that did not infringe on PCR. We successfully achieved that goal by developing a DNA ligase-dependent amplification of DNA that could amplify target molecules >106 fold through thermal cycling (PCT/US93/07342). I made a career move off the lab bench to provide technical evaluation of key technologies that enable drug discovery research and provide strategic planning for delivery of those technologies to Beckman Coulter customers. I now hold the title of Applications Marketing Manager. I am responsible for converting assay kits from a manual to an automated format on liquid handlers in the Biomek continuum. I work in Fullerton, Calif., as part of the Life Sciences Discovery & Lab Automation Business Group. -- David W. Daniels, Ph.D. For comments or questions about T3 Update, please contact David Daniels, Ph.D., editor.
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