All you pipette-heads out there, listen up: MIT’s Technology Review pointed us in the direction of Labcyte, an innovative new company looking to shrink the lab. One tool they’ve developed eliminates the need for cumbersome pipetting into those 96-well (or 384-well!) plates. Their technology actually uses ultrasound to move liquids around, without contact:
To keep down their costs during the drug discovery process, companies and universities are turning to miniaturization processes. But there’s a catch: standard lab equipment was not designed for dispensing tiny traces of substances. Labcyte has developed a proprietary technology for using focused acoustics, or ultrasound, to precisely transfer droplets down to 2.5 nanoliters. By transferring compounds directly into assay plates, the technology eliminates the need for tips, washing, and intermediate dilutions. Their system retails for around $225,000.
According to the company, six major pharmaceutical companies have purchased its systems, including GlaxoSmithKline and Astro Zeneca, as well as schools, including Vanderbilt University. Clients report improved results in the form of time savings, according to the company, which leads to a return on investment in the new equipment within about a year. Labcyte also expects to deploy its acoustic technologies for nano-dispensing liquids in the fields of genomics and proteomics.
More at Labcyte…