Tecan and QIAGEN collaborate to automate pre-analytical processing of whole blood samples

Tecan has launched the Fluent^® Mix and Pierce Workstation to provide end-to-end automation for whole blood pipetting in clinical environments. This newly developed instrument configuration is intended to standardize pre-analytical sample handling and mixing, and is part of an ongoing collaboration with QIAGEN to optimize sample preparation for latent tuberculosis (TB) testing with the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus assay.

The Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation provides a fully automated workflow, using a Flexible Channel Arm™ equipped with Tecan Piercing Tips™ to aliquot whole blood samples directly from vacuum blood collection tubes or septum-capped tubes – without the need for manual lid removal. This reduces the risk of laboratory staff coming into contact with infectious materials, and saves valuable time when performing tube-to-tube or tube-to-plate transfers and whole blood assays. The workstation also features the newly developed Tecan Tube Rotator™ – which provides 360-degree tube mixing to maintain whole blood samples in suspension without hemolysis – and includes barcode scanning for both primary and secondary tubes to ensure full process traceability for clinical settings.

Dr Klaus Lun, Executive Vice President and Head of the Life Sciences Business Division at Tecan, stated: “Our vision at Tecan is to empower every laboratory, every day, around the world, and we are delighted to collaborate with QIAGEN – a global leader in the important area of modern latent TB detection – to help even more labs to increase productivity and reduce processing errors through automation of tedious manual steps.”

Jean-Pascal Viola, Senior Vice President, Head of the Molecular Diagnostics Business Area and Corporate Business Development at QIAGEN NV, added: “We are pleased to expand our collaboration with Tecan – a proven leader with a track record of providing best-in-class liquid handling technology solutions – to further improve the automation of pre-analytical whole blood processing. This partnership will greatly accelerate the adoption and ease of processing of single-tube samples for latent TB detection.”

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