New High Throughput, Low Volume Assay Plate Production System

The Automation Partnership (TAP), a world leading manufacturer of innovative automation for life science applications, today announced its Coda™ high throughput automated nanolitre assay plate production system is being showcased for the first time in Europe at the IQPC Compound Management and Integrity 2009 Conference in London, UK.

The Coda system, developed in partnership with a major compound management group at a top ten pharmaceutical company, integrates up to three Labcyte Echo® 555 liquid handlers into a compound management workflow to enable fast and efficient production of up to 300 384-well plates in 4.5 hours (at 5nl sample volume). This modular system can be configured to suit any pharma company’s sample management programmes and would typically include a conventional liquid handler for dispensing buffer or diluent, a centrifuge for ensuring liquids are at the bottom of the plate and TAP’s specialist Echo robotic feeding arm designed to work reliably with the Echo’s loading stages. Coda can also have labelling and plate sealing modules integrated, as well as using PlateSafes or plate hotels to ensure full compound tracking and secure plate storage.

When coupled with relevant modules of TAP's powerful Concerto Sample Management Software, Coda can generate a comprehensive range of output plate formats. Each test can have its own format defined, without any restriction on where samples or controls are placed, thus eliminating positional bias from assay results. Concerto modules can create intermediate dilution plates via existing equipment, as well as offering the versatility to collate small orders. If the same compound families are being tested by different chemists, Concerto will automatically design the most resource efficient method of producing these plates. Concerto features an open architecture so users can easily integrate existing or new sample management equipment and be up and running again rapidly without the need for a major re-investment in management software.

Andrew Proudfoot, Coda Product Manager at TAP commented: “The Echo system is frequently used outside a sample management facility and means the same compounds are often stored and dispensed by different groups. This can result in organisational inefficiency and unnecessary use of expensive compounds and reagents and has led to an increasing need to incorporate the Echo system into high throughput compound management programmes.”

Proudfoot continued: ”This is why we are delighted to have utilised our extensive automation expertise to develop such an integrated high throughput low volume assay plate production system with Coda. Coda has now successfully passed all its 1500 site acceptance tests in a major compound management facility, validating how robust and reliable this system’s performance is for automating high throughput nanolitre assay plate production. We are therefore looking forward to meeting delegates at IQPC and discussing how a Coda system could help to significantly reduce their reagent and compound testing costs, as well as improve their drug discovery and development workflow.”