MultiFlo FX Wins Over Environmental Lab

In the Department of Environmental Science and Health at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Mr. Charles Teta specializes in ecotoxicology.

His research includes uncovering the frequency and effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals in native fish, and analyzing hazardous chemicals such as heavy metals and pesticides in the environment that may have originated from municipal landfills, mines and urban effluents. With several kinetic and end-point assay techniques already employed, the manual processes were time consuming, and human error was an ever-present risk when dispensing into a microplate with a single-channel or multi-channel pipette. If reagents were added too slowly, or mixed incompletely, the assays had to be repeated, thereby doubling efforts, sample volume and costly materials.

In late 2013, Mr. Teta entered BioTek's MultiFlo™ FX Giveaway online promotion. From the pool of global entrants, he was selected as the winner of a new MultiFlo FX Multi-Mode Dispenser! Everything about MultiFlo FX, from installation to protocol creation and implementation, and even maintenance, were so straightforward and clearly detailed that Mr. Teta was able to incorporate it into his ecotoxicology research immediately. The ecotoxicology lab is now considering the addition of a washing module to MultiFlo FX for expanded application flexibility.

Mr. Teta notes that “the quality of our results is significantly improved” due to MultiFlo FX's high accuracy; and the fast dispensing speed reduces overall assay time while ensuring uniform mixing and reaction times across the plate. Additionally, “reagents are saved, and we can be more productive” because experiments are no longer repeated as a result of human error.

He happily proclaims, “MultiFlo FX has excellent performance and is such a great addition to our lab; we've fallen in love with BioTek! We look forward to using more BioTek instruments, and in fact, are considering the Synergy™ Neo2 Multi-Mode Reader for our toxicology laboratory.”