DNA extraction

In order to move to the next step in high through- put DNA extraction, Synchron is leading the way from parallel processing to industrial, semi-serial 6 processing. Using a magnetic bead extraction kit and essentially a system with 10 x 96 channel heads, the DNA extraction system eliminates many tedious washing and waiting steps.

The supply of microtitre plates and disposable tips is taken care of by a large plate feeding system, the PlateFeeder, that can hold up to 400 plates per 8h run (200 input, 200 output) and several disposable tip racks. A run of 200 microtitre plates will typically take about 8 hours. The first sample plate is ready in about 20 min from start and then every 2.5 min a new plate is ready.

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1| 96-WELL HEADS

The system uses 2 x 96 disposable tip, accurate pipetting heads, for volume and contamination critical steps. The other 8 x 96-heads are in fact 4 x dual-function 192-heads, for aspiration into waste and non-contact dispensing of one washing buffer each.

2 | MAGBEAD STIRRER

The magnetics beads are constantly kept in suspension in the system and can be freshly added per run. Keeping the beads in suspension is a critical step in order to make sure that the DNA concentration after elution is similar from plate to plate and run to run.

3 | PLATEFEEDER

The PlateFeeder system has up to 12 stacker that can be plates stacked on top of each- other or random access. The PlateFeeder scans all barcodes at the beginning of the run and transfers source and destination plates to and from the carriers when required by the scheduling in the protocol. The Plate- Feeder can also be used for supplying plates to and from the SeedPicker as well as funtion as storage of the Germinator system.