The Wine Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology Laboratory at the University of Adelaide has developed a customized solution offering fully automated sampling for yeast fermentations.

Based on a Freedom EVO® 200 platform, this system frees researchers from the need to manually aliquot samples day and night for up to three weeks. Dr Tommaso Liccioli Watson, a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory, explained: “We use approaches such as directed evolution and mutagenesis to develop novel yeast and bacterial strains to improve the winemaking process. However, these methods are often very time consuming, requiring large-scale screening of hundreds or even thousands of candidate strains, often from heterogeneous populations. Monitoring the fermentation process for large numbers of samples is very laborious, requiring sampling of fermentation vessels every six hours or so over the course of several days to several weeks.”
 
“Automation was the solution, and Tecan’s Freedom EVO really stood out. We were able to integrate our own custom hardware solutions onto the platform with relative ease, building a walkaway fermentation monitoring solution to generate 96-well microplates ready for loading onto our various analytical instruments. It only takes half a day to set up a 96-fermentation experiment, which can be remotely monitored via a smart phone from another lab, from home or – because this is Australia – from the beach. Compared to having to be in the lab every few hours, day and night, this is fantastic.”

For more information on this application, contact tommaso.watson@adelaide.edu.au

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About Tecan
Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global provider of laboratory instruments and solutions in biopharmaceuticals, forensics and clinical diagnostics. The company specializes in the development, production and distribution of automated workflow solutions for laboratories in the life sciences sector. Its clients include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments, and forensic and diagnostic laboratories. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Tecan is also a leader in developing and manufacturing OEM instruments and components that are then distributed by partner companies. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both Europe and North America and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2014, Tecan generated sales of CHF 400 million (USD 437 million; EUR 331 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TECN; ISIN CH0012100191).

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