Combination of industrial robotics, dynamic scheduling software, liquid handling, cell counting instrumentation, and environmental control systems now available in modules
Following the success of Accellerator's implementation at AstraZeneca, RTS has launched three separate modular sections of Accellerator.
The advantages of the individual incubating, cell harvesting and plating systems are numerous.
The full Accellerator is a robotic system that provides total automation of cell growth, harvest, count, passage and plating.
It uses a combination of industrial robotics, easy to use dynamic scheduling software, integrated proven liquid handling and cell counting instrumentation and environmental control systems.
The system was designed with high volume users in mind and has proved ideal in this role.
Sean Sales, RTS's Accellerator application consultant, explained: "Breaking the Accellerator down according to function was the logical next step for this technology.
"Not only will this be a more affordable way of automating a part of the cell culture process, but the modular parts of Accellerator will take up considerably less space in the lab.
"We are envisaging modular Accellerator acting ultimately as a stepping stone to the full system, as more and more companies adopt HTS and therefore need to eradicate the bottleneck in cell culture that forms as a consequence.
"The new systems are aimed at mid-size pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms who wish to standardise their cell culturing techniques and avoid system duplication.
"The design behind the new modular systems was customer driven and although even smaller than the corresponding sections of the full size system, have even higher capacities. "An illustration is the incubation module, where the flask picking robot has been replaced by a transfer mechanism which links to the incubators' own flask shuttle mechanism. "The access doors are now smaller and are only open for just a few seconds at a time and the incorporation of a flask shuttle mechanism reduces the environmental disturbance of each incubator still further.
"Incubator capacities have been increased from 144 flasks to 192 and 378 plates to 504, further facilitating unmanned operation.
"The stand alone passaging module is expected to yield the highest demand, as it will enable a company to run more cell lines without manual intervention. "The plating module too has seen a significant increase in capacity and will integrate with any liquid handler. "Significantly, it is also capable of 1536 dispensing and in this variant boasts an integral plate centrifuge.
"This latter function makes the plating module unique in the sector."
