Nanoliter High-Throughput Quantitative PCR Using the ECHO Liquid Handler and the Roche LightCycler 1536

Recent advances in reagent chemistry and newer technologies to detect PCR amplicons in low volumes have enabled high throughput screening of modified gene expression. Forays into this high throughput arena have been limited by high reagent and tip cost, and low throughput instrumentation. The study presented in this scientific poster utilized the non-contact acoustic Labcyte Echo 555 liquid handler to prepare miniaturized qPCR reactions in total reaction volumes ranging from 150 nL to 500 nL. The resulting amplification curves yielded excellent crossing point precision and accuracy, with standard deviations from 0.21 to 0.78. Proof of concept experiments with positive and negative controls dispensed into alternating wells demonstrated zero cross-contamination.