The POD system maximizes the power of the Echo® liquid handler to significantly save costs and time
A walk-up and walk-away solution for the Echo liquid handler
As the revolutionary Echo liquid handler drives life science applications to unmatched precision and accuracy, the POD automation platform similarly adds automated plate handling with unmatched performance and ease-of-use. In comparison to other integrated systems, the POD system uses the wizard-based Echo® software applications to schedule and control automation events, creating routines optimized for the most efficient use of the Echo platform. Installed within 90 days from order, the POD system is ready for use immediately after site acceptance. Regardless of their experience with automation, researchers can walk-up and quickly create protocols specific to their application while the POD system manages the rest.
Automation optimized for the Echo liquid handler
- Easily create fully automated workflows driven by the Echo platform
- Maximize the ability of the Echo system to save cost and time
- Instantly improve liquid handling performance and throughput
High-quality low-volume sample handling
- Quickly prepare plates for chemical or biological assays
- Maintain sample concentration and purity
- Add environmentally controlled storage
Unmatched automation control
- Schedules created automatically without custom programming
- Quickly adapt protocols as requirements change
- Easily communicate with LIMS and databases
Changing laboratory workflows
The ability of Echo liquid handler to precisely and accurately dispense volumes lower than previously possible has already changed traditional workflows in many laboratories. Since it does not require pipette tips or contact of any kind, which can lead to sample retention and variability, data quality is greatly improved. This leads to tremendous cost savings by eliminating money spent on disposal of pipette tips, tip washing fluids, intermediate plates, and wasted samples. Installed within 90 days followed by a week of site acceptance and training, the POD system is the quickest way to enable the Echo liquid handler to drive fully automated workflows, increasing the savings.
Estimated reduction of costs compared to tip-based liquid handling when preparing 500,000 samples for 55 screening campaigns using the POD system.
High quality dose response curves with the highest throughput
To demonstrate the power of the POD system, five different dose‐response scenarios were conducted in a fully automated fashion. The highest throughput occurred when source plates were pre‐formatted to contain three separate concentrations of each sample minimizing the number of plate transfers required in a direct‐dilution doseresponse workflow. This demonstrates a significant improvement to the overall application throughput by creating pre‐formatted source plates on the POD system prior to creating dose‐response assay plates. The remaining scenarios demonstrate the flexibility of the POD system to easily accommodate alternative workflows and still provide tremendous throughput.
| Scenario | Sample Plate wells | Destination Plate wells | Intermediate Plate Used ? | Sample Plate Hit Rate |
|---|
| 1 | 1536 | 1536 | No | 100% |
| 2 | 384 | 384 | No | 100% |
| 3 | 384 | 384 | Yes | 100% |
| 4 | 384 | 384 | Yes | 3% |
| 5 | 384 | 384 | Yes | 1% |
Quickly create automation routines with Tempo™ automation control
Tempo automation control software is designed to reduce the steps required to design and schedule automation routines in contrast to typical integrated systems. As samples are loaded into the storage devices, barcode labels are scanned and the POD system’s inventory management control is updated. A run setup wizard instructs users to select a protocol created from the Echo software applications. If a protocol does not exist, one can be created directly from the POD system software. For each plate type, users can set parameters for any applicable pre- and post-run plate handling actions. In the final step, the protocol is added to the POD run schedule to be initiated by priority or specific time. Once an automation routine has been created any edits to the Echo software application protocol are automatically recognized and accounted for. This allows users to easily adjust or replace Echo liquid handling protocols without creating a new automation routine.
Product Materials