chemagic Dispenser
The use of the chemagic MSM I facilitates time consuming sample preparation steps like nucleic acid isolation prior to downstream applications significantly.
However the chemagic MSM I itself does not dispense liquids, so the user has to pre-fill reaction tubes with buffer solutions manually or use a liquid dispenser or a liquid handling robot for this purpose. Especially by applying standard liquid dispensers or liquid handling robots the first restrictions will become obvious when it is necessary to fill large volumes e.g. to process 10 ml blood samples within a certain time frame as most of the existing standard automats are not designed to handle such volumes. On the other hand, even though pre-filling reaction tubes manually is not a big task, it means additional hands-on time. With the chemagic Dispenser, chemagen has developed an accessory that further facilitates procedures carried out on the chemagic MSM I. The degree of automation is increased and the dispenser can also be easily adapted to older versions of the Module.
- Use of up to 8 different buffers possible
- Simultaneous filling of up to 8 different buffers with different buffer volumes
- No mixing of buffers possible
- No dead volume
- Fully integrated in the chemagic MSM I software
The chemagic Dispenser was developed to fill reaction tubes with buffer solutions in a very short time frame even when larger buffer volumes are required. Additionally a time saving parallel filling of different buffers should be possible and finally it should be ensured, that no buffer mixing may occur, an important requirement to get reproducible sample preparation results.
The above drawing shows the combination of the chemagic Dispenser with the
chemagic MSM I used as a stand-alone version. The position of the buffer containers D. is variable. They can also be stored on the platform above the X-axis tracking system. For customers with extremly high throughputs the buffers are stored in larger buffer containers under the table.
The upgrading of chemagic MSM I – Liquid Handling Robot integrations is also easily possible but requires normally a change of the layout due to the specifications of the integration.
The following example gives an overview of the manual and automated steps using the
stand-alone chemagic MSM I with a chemagic Dispenser.
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Manual procedures | Automated procedures |
One rack with disposable tips and four racks with empty 50 ml tubes (4, 8 or 12 tubes) are placed on the tracking unit | Isolation protocol is started, peristaltic pump is activated |
Blood and protease (if needed) is filled into empty 50 ml tubes | Lysis buffer is added via the chemagic Dispenser and blood/lysis buffer solution is transported under the head and stirred |
Beads are filled into empty 50 ml tubes | After lysis has been completed (e.g. 10 min), racks are transported back to appropriate position for further liquid handling |
Racks are placed on the tracking unit | Binding buffer is added to blood lysate and wash buffers are added to empty tubes |
Peristaltic pump stops | |
Tracking unit moves plate with beads (in wash buffer 5) under the head, beads are picked up and stirred into binding buffer/blood lysate | |
Rest of the isolation protocol is processed |
The first three points of the manual procedures can be avoided using a liquid handling robot. The empty racks are then positioned on the robot platform.
