Novel High-Throughput Automated Stem Cell Culture & Screening System
Menlo Park, CA - A novel high-throughput automated stem cell culture and screening system is described in a new technical data sheet available from Velocity11, an Agilent Technologies company.
The technical data sheet describes how an automated platform was developed with a customer who wanted to use stem cells as the basis of their HTS assays and drug discovery programs, with the goal to increase their throughput and potentially find more promising lead compounds. To successfully automate these sensitive assays they required an automated system with a controlled environment which would provide the best conditions for cell growth.
Using the Filtered Plus BioCel automation platform the system was designed to maintain a temperature of 37ºC (± 0.1ºC) inside the BioCel system and to filter air inside to a Class 100 specification, creating an optimised environment to meet stem cell culture requirements for plate-based cell maintenance and cell-based assays. With a novel method for controlling air velocity and using ultra-low penetration air filters, the system is able to achieve an increased turnover in filtered air resulting in a reduced number of foreign particles and reduced cell contamination.
The automated procedure used is described in the data sheet. This involves seeding plates from a bulk culture, adding compounds to cell plates, and transferring supernatant or cell lysate to an assay plate. The automated system ensures that all processes are accurately managed, to ensure reliable and repeatable results. The Filtered Plus BioCel automation system is shown to provide fast, efficient transfer of cells, minimal exposure to contaminants and optimal growth of stem cells.
Since 1999, Velocity11 has combined innovative engineering with high standards of quality and customer service, to design and manufacture flexible high-performance automation systems and instruments for applications that include medium to high throughput screening of cell-based and enzyme assays, ELISA, plasmid and sequencing preparation, PCR clean-up, solubility, and more.
SOURCE: Velocity11