Purpose

Production of ready to use cell plates of cell needs time and makes it difficult to create a simple time schedule within the work week. For example if you want to start your cellular screening on Monday morning you have to create the ready to use plates on Sunday i.e. at weekend.
Our Frozen Cell Plating Workstation permits automatic production of ready to use cell plates overnight or at weekends. Cryovials with frozen cells can be placed on the workstation e.g. on Friday and are kept at -20 °C, automatically thawed on Sunday and production of ready to use cell plates starts on Sunday night. The ready to use cell plates are finished and freshly prepared for your  screen on Monday morning.

Components of Workstation:

• Robot to handle microtiterplates
• Liquid handler with piercing pipetting tool to pierce the septum of cryovials
• Freezebox developed for cryovials with septum and located on deck of liquid handler
• Cryostat, control software included
• Incubator
• Dispenser e.g. Multidrop
• autoclavable and reusable injection valve with tube for using different bottles of several sizes e.g. bottle with stirr bar or spinner flask etc.
• temperature-controlled magnetic stirrer
• Complete integration including control software and scheduling
• developed for Biomek® 3000 from Beckman Coulter Inc. (using P1000L Tool with exchangeably, customized fixed tips)
• other liquid handlers on request

The process:

• the cell bottle/spinner flask is manually filled with medium to get the desired cell concentration (after transfer of cells from the cryovials to the cell bottle/spinner flask) and the process is started
• the cryovials with cells stay frozen at Freezebox and are thawed at a customized point of time
• the thawed cells are transfered across the injection valve to the cell bottle/spinner flask filled with medium
• the cells are stirred and at a customized point of time the cells are transfered by Dispenser to microtiterplates. The velocity of stirring is controlled depending of level in the bottle.
• the lidded cell plates are stored at incubator