Dragonfly Discovery enables accurate and repeatable nanolitre to millilitre dispensing, irrespective of liquid viscosity or environmental conditions.
Mosquito LV Genomics is a liquid handler that provides users with precise and repeatable pipetting in the nanolitre range, across a wide range of liquid viscosities and environmental conditions.
Two different systems are present on this station from Beckman Coulter: a NGS library preparation instrument and a nucleic acid extraction instrument.
These systems allow the extraction of DNA and RNA from biological samples and the processing of nucleic acid samples for NGS library preparation, quantification, normalization and pooling for sequencing. They allow the quantitation and evaluation of DNA/RNA samples using measurements in absorbance and fluorescence. A FlyBy barcode reader is present for samples and reagents traceability. Control and security systems include: two cams for remote control of the deck, a light curtain for system freezing in case of external interferences, and a cabinet enclosure for sample protection.
Different third part protocols can be implemented on the instruments, as well as new protocols for customized applications. The system can transfer liquids on 96well or 384well plates using a 96 positions multichannel pipetting head (1-300 µl in A, 5-1200 µl in B) or a span-8 system (1-1000µl). The working area is composed of 26 positions for consumables, 8 positions for multichannel tips loading and the integrated devices. Consumables can be moved on the deck using two independent grippers. Samples and reagents can be shaked or incubated at fixed temperature using the following integrated devices: orbital shaker for different kind of labware, static peltier (one in B and two in A) and shacking peltier for 96 well plates and thermoblock (usually used for 1.5 ml vials). Two wash stations are present for tips washing and recycling from 96 multichannel head and span-8 system. An integrated thermocycler (ATC) is present for sample incubation and on-deck PCR (only in the library preparation station). In the left side module a BMG FLUOstar Omega spectrofluorometer has been installed for integrated quality control steps.
Softwares
The Tecan Fluent 780 automated workstation is a powerful platform, yet FluentControl™ keeps daily operation simple with a dedicated touchscreen interface on the instrument itself. It’s an exceptional instrumentation concept providing a choice of workstation capacities, and robotics, liquid handling and application options to suit the process-specific needs of laboratories. FluentControl™ is designed to empower scientists to build, optimize and maintain their own assays, without the need for computer programming expertise. By separating the interactions of everyday workflows from the configuration of new assays, Tecan has created ideal tools for both. The Frida Reader module for Fluent workstations offers researchers the ability to quantify nucleic acids without sample loss. Designed to work in combination with the platform’s Air Flexible Channel Arm™, this patented approach performs UV absorbance-based quantification and purity assessment in a hanging drop, avoiding the consumption of rare and precious samples following nucleic acid purification (NAP). It is ideal for precious or low volume samples, as the hanging drop is aspirated back into the tip and can be used for further processing, such as normalization. This helps users to avoid poor quality results or downstream failures due to insufficient or contaminated samples, saving time and lowering costs. We provide a number of innovative, off-the-shelf solutions that are specifically tailored to applications in life sciences and diagnostics.