The most recent edition of the Journal of Biomolecular Screening, the world's
leading peer-reviewed publication on drug discovery sciences, focused on the
significant advances made recently in the field of compound management. In this
special edition over half of the sixteen articles specifically mention the Labcyte
Echo® liquid handlers.
Of particular interest is the article by Grant et al., AstraZeneca, which states,
“In summary, the introduction of the Echo acoustic reformatter has represented
a major milestone in pharmaceutical screening applications. It has revolutionized
the compound management process to support HTS.” (http://jbx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/14/5/452)
In the paper by Zaragoza-Sundqvist et al., Astra Zeneca, the authors said,
“Four years ago, the first acoustic droplet ejectors (ADEs) were launched
on the market, providing a new generation of high throughput noncontact liquid
handlers that outclassed traditional contact instruments in almost every respect...Higher
quality is achieved through greater accuracy and precision, whereas lower sample
volumes can be used, and 1536 plate formats have become a reliable reality.”
(http://jbx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/14/5/509)
Articles by Matson et al., Bristol-Myers Squibb, (http://jbx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/14/5/476),
Pfeifer and Scheel, Novartis, (http://jbx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/14/5/492)
and Blaxill et al., GlaxoSmithKline, (http://jbx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/14/5/547)
use the acoustic auditing capabilities of the Labcyte Echo technology to determine
the volume of wells and the level of DMSO hydration.
Labcyte Echo liquid handlers use sound to move a wide range of liquids. Eliminating
physical contact with the sample makes the transfer contamination-free as well
as extremely precise and accurate for a wide range of life science applications.
The system has a working range from 2.5 nL to many microliters. Echo liquid
handlers automatically measure the depth of fluid in each source well, informing
the user of the quantity and quality of samples. This technology is especially
well suited to biological applications in which precision measurements are critical
and cross-contamination of samples can interfere with accurate interpretation
of the results. Software especially designed for cherry-picking, dose-response
set-up and plate reformatting, optimize the system ease-of-use.
Posted August 3rd, 2009
