Tecan launches cell handler at LabAutomation
system designed to produce a ready supply of cells for cell-based
assays, at the LabAutomation 2004 exhibition, which opened its
doors yesterday.
Cellerity is modelled on Tecan's Freedom EVO liquid-handling machine, which was launched onto the market last year. The new version is a high-throughput cell and protein production system for cell culture maintenance, cell-line expansion and harvesting.
Providing a consistent supply of cells for cell-based assays is "a significant, industry-wide bottleneck," according to Carl Severinghaus, president of Tecan US.
Some of the features of Cellerity include an AutoLoader for presentation of new flasks and culture plates and a flexible eight-tip liquid handling arm (Advanced LiHa) for media delivery to and from any type of vessel.
The system also contains a 9-position, 96- or 384-channel multi-pipetting option - called TeMo - with a built-in station that can take the lids off microplates. This speeds up replating of harvested cells, refrigerated media storage and in-line media warming for dispensing up to eight different reagents.
In addition, Cellerity has an integrated cell counting module for replating and seeding activities, while twin robotic manipulator (RoMa) arms transport plates and flasks throughout the workspace, providing access to all pipetting stations, cell counters, incubators, storage devices and other modules.
The LabAutomation show also saw the US debuts of a number of other Tecan products, including a new microplate reader called the Safire2.
This monochromator-based microplate reader combines has a modular format and can handle a wide range of high-speed fluorescence techniques. Tecan has designed it to eliminate the need to switch instruments when moving from assay development to high throughput screening.
The Safire2 is particularly suitable for biomolecular assays for primary or secondary screening, such as molecular interaction, kinase, protease or G-protein-coupled receptor assays, said Tecan.
Finally, Tecan introduced its EVOware software package at the show. This is claimed to be the first liquid handling and robotic control software to provide pipetting and dynamic scheduling of multiple devices in one package, and supports laboratories working under the US Food and Drug Administration's 21 CFR part 11 regulation covering electronic record keeping.
21 CFR Part 11 requires validation of every software package used in the quality control process, with error checking and cross-validation needed whenever manual data entry or data copying is used.
