Beckman Coulter Integrates BioRAPTR™ for High-Throughput Assay Miniaturization

Beckman Coulter, Inc. demonstrates its BioRAPTR FRD™ microfluidic workstation at LabAutomation2007. The system is shown in two configurations – standalone and integrated with Beckman Coulter’s PARADIGM™ Detection Platform, Biomek® NXp liquid handler and BRT Robotic Transport.

According to Company, ideal for assay miniaturization applications in drug discovery, genomics and proteomics, the BioRAPTR non-contact, high-precision dispenser can deliver increased capacity. With the BioRAPTR’s design, the plate moves while the pipetting head is stationary, creating a shorter fluid path, for high precision with low dead volume.

Flexible programming is done through an Excel* spreadsheet and can allow a variety of reagents to be dispensed into any well at a range of volumes. The BioRAPTR has been validated with biological samples, demonstrating high cell viability.

Integration of the BioRAPTR with Beckman Coulter’s Biomek and PARADIGM systems enables high-throughput applications such as compound screening.

The company has also recently introduced a companion workstation, the PicoRAPTR™, a multimode workstation that features both piezo and syringe dispensing for low-volume aspirate and dispenses operations involved in dose response curve generation and compound reformatting activities.

“This is the first time we have shown the BioRAPTR, developed by Aurora Discovery, as a Beckman Coulter product integrated with our other systems,” commented Noreen Galvin, Ph.D., director of automated solutions for Beckman Coulter.

“We are currently working on additional integrations for high-throughput compound screening applications.  The combination of high-quality, high-content data and reduced costs is driving rapid acceptance of this technology at pharmaceutical companies.”