Collaborative effort has produced a high-performance platform for automating the tedious, time-consuming steps traditionally associated with manual methods
Tecan and EMD Biosciences have announced an agreement to co-market a series of automated solutions for medium-to-high throughput protein extraction, screening, and purification.
The collaborative effort has produced a high-performance platform for automating the tedious, time-consuming steps traditionally associated with manual methods of sample preparation, screening, and purification for recombinant proteins.
Combined with Novagen proprietary reagent kits, Tecan's Genesis and Freedom Evo workstations afford users a turnkey, high-throughput solution for protein purification using HisTag and GSTTag technologies.
As part of the collaboration, Tecan and EMD Biosciences have created an integrated technical applications team, thereby ensuring a seamless, comprehensive level of post-sale technical support and streamlined integration into existing laboratory workflows. "The development of automated platforms for recombinant protein purification, in conjunction with Novagen reagents, represents a major addition to Tecan's proteomics product offerings.
"By working with a leader in protein biochemistry reagents, we have been able to provide powerful automation solutions that address many of the key bottlenecks associated with protein biochemistry research," remarked Jan Timmers, head of biopharma and clinical diagnostics at Tecan.
"We are very pleased to be working with Tecan, a worldwide leader in robotics and liquid handling, to develop an automated system for recombinant protein purification.
"This collaboration will provide a complete, optimised combination of instrumentation, reagents, and protocols that will facilitate rapid progress in proteomics research," stated Robert Mierendorf, chief technology officer, EMD Biosciences.
The validated protocols will enable users to purify proteins in 96-well microplate format with either vacuum filtration or magnetic bead separation methods. Using the integrated Tecan Genios Plus microplate reader, recombinant protein expression and solubility screening assays may also be conducted.
The Novagen RoboPop system is uniquely suited for automated protein purification because it eliminates the need for centrifugation and enables the entire process from cell growth through purification to be performed in one deep-well plate.
The kits feature PopCulture reagent, rLysozyme solution, and benzonase nuclease for efficient extraction of intact proteins from total cultures, plus HisMag or GSTMag agarose beads and corresponding buffers for high-capacity magnetic affinity purification.
For solubility screening prior to the purification step, the Fretworks STag assay kits (Novagen) are ready to use on Tecan's Genesis Freedom workstations.
