Labcyte's acoustic liquid handler Echo has helped pharmaceutical companies such as Astrazeneca discover a novel set of potential cancer drugs by avoiding the problems associated with using pipettes.
The Echo system uses acoustic energy to transfer liquids during the drug discovery testing process, avoiding problems associated with transferring potential drug candidates with pipette tips.
Drug candidates can be lost when pipette tips become clogged or if the candidate sticks to the tip.
Test results can also be compromised by dirty tips or by chemicals leaching from tips.
These errors are compounded when doing dose-response experiments.
The Echo system reduces false negative and false positive results, leading to better identification of potential therapies.
According to Labcyte, Echo systems increase productivity, reduce costs and generate better results, which may lead to new therapies.
Using sound to move liquids has also been adopted by customers for qPCR, siRNA testing, tissue-imaging mass spectroscopy, cell transfers and protein crystallography.