Dolomite and Emerald produce MPCS Plug Maker

This novel touchscreen instrument enables low-volume crystallisation (5-10nL protein/experiment) for the production of diffraction-ready crystals with no wasted protein.

The MPCS Plug Maker is ideal for applications such as ligand screening, hybrid screening and microfluidic seeding.

The Plug Maker is a self-contained unit operated from a built-in touchscreen control unit.

It takes up less than two feet of bench width.

Dolomite carried out all elements of the Plug Maker system design and development (including concept generation, industrial design, hardware and software engineering and manufacture), creating an easy-to-use system based on Emerald's core science.

The Plug Maker automates well-validated Emerald technology, rapidly creating a series of 10nl plugs of protein and precipitant samples in a plastic Crystalcard, which are then allowed to crystallise.

This revolutionary performance was made possible using Dolomite's ultra-smooth pump technology, coupled with its expertise in microfluidics and engineering.

Dolomite added further value by completing the entire instrument design (including a vision system, fully automated liquid-handling system and touchscreen control software).

The development took just 18 months from first concept to launch at Labautomation.

Fine gradient optimisation and sparse matrix screening can be performed simultaneously to identify optimal crystallisation growth conditions.

Experimental conditions are easily optimised with the ability to form on-chip gradients, with only 22ul of protein needed.

In addition, the ability to perform up to 800 experiments per chip maximises throughput for a highly efficient workflow.

Dolomite is supplying manufactured units solely to Emerald Biosystems and has agreed to collaborate with it on any further developments to the instrument.

The Plug Maker has just won a 'New Product Award' at Labautomation 2010 (Palm Springs, California).