For many techniques used in drug discovery and proteomics/genomics, reducing assay cost by minimising reagent and sample usage is paramount
Accurate low volume pipetting has become a reality with Mosquito, TTP LabTech's innovative instrument that combines the liquid transfer capability of a fixed head pipettor with the convenience and zero cross-contamination of disposable tips.
For many techniques used in drug discovery and proteomics/genomics, reducing assay cost by minimising reagent and sample usage is paramount.
However low sample volumes bring major technical difficulties.
"Drug discovery researchers have been crying out for a liquid handling system that is accurate at the nanolitre level" commented Jas Sanghera, TTP LabTech's commercial director.
"We set out to address this need, but we also wanted a system that didn't require time-consuming wash cycles and could handle a variety of fluid viscosities. Mosquito satisfies all these criteria, with the ability to pipette accurately and reliably down to 50nl with CVs of only 8%, even when dispensing into dry wells.
And it's not much bigger than a laser printer, so it's ideally suited to benchtop use".
At the core of Mosquito is the bandolier spool of miniature syringe-like micropipettes that provides a continuous feed of disposable tips to the pipetting head.
Each bandolier has 35,000 micropipettes - enough to perform 1:1 transfers in over 90 x 384-well plates.
When a spool is finished, the empty spool is simply removed and replaced with a new one, a process that takes seconds.
Mosquito is ideal for high throughput applications, being compatible with 96, 384 and 1536 plates.
As the micropipettes are made of high grade polyethylene and stainless steel, they can pierce many plate sealing films and because they are disposable, there is no risk of cross-contamination.
Any volume in the range 50-1200nl can be selected and pipetting functions include pooling and plate replication.
To minimise carry-over and improve accuracy and reproducibility, the micropipette tips are presented to the meniscus at the optimum height for the transfer.
Where cross-contamination is not an issue, Mosquito can make multiple dispenses from a single aspiration.
Mosquito is controlled by intuitive, 'plug and play' software and will integrate with robotics systems for full automation, giving even higher throughput and increased walk-away time.
