Labcyte Awarded 28th US Patent Describing Improved HTS Microplates
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
Labcyte Inc. announces the issuance of U.S. Patent 7,185, 969 describing microplates used in high-throughput screening that have low electrical resistance. These plates are easily electrically grounded than traditional plastic microplates and are easily de-ionized.
“The trajectory of small droplets can be influenced by electric charges and fields,” said Chief Technical Officer, Richard Ellson. “We deionize both source plates and destinations in our current instruments, the Portrait™ 630 reagent multi-spotter, the Echo® 550 and Echo 555 liquid handlers to reduce this effect. These advances in microplates will reduce the time required for deionization and improve the productivity of the process.”
The Labcyte acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) technology used in Echo® Series 500 liquid handlers has become the state-of-the-art in sample transfer in high-throughput screening laboratories in the pharmaceutical industry.
The technology described in this patent will allow the company to increase throughput while expanding the range of available applications. This invention will also facilitate the placement of arrays onto the bottom of individual wells in multi-well systems. In this case, it is not sufficient to ensure that the compound was simply transferred to a well but that it was transferred to a particular location in the well with no overlap with other compounds transferred. Even a slight charge could force droplets to change trajectory and position of or even move after they land.
According to Labcyte, these microplates will aid in miniaturization and enable its users to take further advantage of the small drops produced by its acoustic drop ejection technology.
