The Lynx 96VVP Technology in combination with FlexTrough allows the independent dispensing of samples allowing high speed NGS pooling.
Next-Gen Sequencing (NGS)
Today’s complex genomic research questions demand a depth of information beyond the capacity of traditional DNA sequencing technologies. Next-generation sequencing has filled that gap and become an everyday research tool to address these questions.
96 Channel Independent Dispensing
One of the most sought-after functionalities in liquid handling robotics is the ability to either aspirate or dispense using individual channels in a 96 head. This is especially important when building plates in a combinatorial fashion.
With VVP96, a complete 96 well plate may be aspirated and the head then increments over a destination well or vial to ‘pool’ all the samples into one or more wells. This alleviates the need for a spreadable 8 tip arm that needs to load and unload tips 12 times per plate. Using 8 tips would also require 12 different aspirate and 96 dispenses.
For example:, on an 8 tip system, each plate requires 12 passes to fill the entire plate and 96 individual dispenses to fill all rows as this can only happen one tip at a time.
Each plate would require 20 aspirate functions (12 columns sequences pick ups and 8 row sequences pick ups) and 108 dispenses (12 passes with columns, 96 with rows).
A non-VVP system that uses individual channels requires 128 pipette motions to make one plate of 96 unique mixes. This is only for buffers and not for samples.
Ten plates would require 960 different formulations which would require up to 1,280 aspirates and/or dispenses.
What can FlexTrough offer?
It allows the use of traditional 96 heads. We can fill 2 plates of 96 unique mixes with duplicates using only 4 aspirates and 12 dispenses. This equates to roughly 1/10th the number of pipette motions as compared to an 8 tip system.
Ten plates would again require 960 different formulations with duplicates. This would demand only 160 aspirate or dispenses motions.
What can FlexTrough and a VVP96 offer?
We can fill 2 plates of 96 unique mixes with duplicates using only 2 aspirate 8 dispenses motions. This is 10 total compared to either 160 or 1280 motions.
Ten plates would again require 960 mixes with duplicates. However, a VVP 96 can do this in roughly 100 aspirate or dispense motions.
