A new technical note from Agilent Automation Solutions describes a BioCel System that offers the flexibility to be adaptable to accommodate today's High Throughput Screening (HTS) assays as well as new protocols and hardware.

The variety of different assay protocols for HTS is increasing constantly. Today's automated systems need to be flexible and cleverly designed to accommodate a large number of different protocols without major delays or costs involved.

To prevent obsolescence, an automated system should be flexible enough to accommodate today's assays as well as new protocols and hardware. The BioCel System described in the new technical note includes a selection of liquid handlers and readers, and an active environmental control for the entire system. A multimode reader, bulk reagent dispensers, plate washer and the Agilent Vertical Pipetting Station allow assays to be run in 96-, 384- or 1536-format.

The active environmental control used by the Agilent BioCel System allows assays to be run at constant temperature (ambient up to 37°C), avoiding edge effects often caused by transport into and out of incubators. The high precision, low volume pipettor and the large plate storage capacity allow the compound plate bank to be run alongside the assay, adding the compounds on-the-fly. No prior assay plate generation is necessary and due to the low volume capacity of the Vertical Pipetting Station (200 nL), DMSO concentrations in the assay are kept low.

For a copy of the new technical note please visit  www.chem.agilent.com/Library/applications/5990-3619en_lo%20CMS.pdf or contact or contact your local Agilent Automation sales office.

From stand-alone units to fully integrated systems, Agilent Automation Solutions teams key sample preparation and creative walk-away automation approaches with personalized customer service to provide complete solutions for your laboratory.  Combining innovative engineering with high standards of quality, Agilent designs and manufactures high-performance equipment for processes that are revolutionizing pharmaceutical, biotech, and genomic research.