Patented Technology

High Throughput Automation Optimized for Continuous Array Tape™

International deployments throughout North & South America, Asia, and Europe are proving daily that our technology is transforming lab automation as we know it.

Achieve quality data with repeatable results in a flexible, high throughput system at a lower cost per data point. Douglas Scientific provides inline, modular instrumentation that is fully integrated and optimized for use with our revolutionary consumable, Array Tape™. This low cost, flexible microplate replacement enables automation of an entire laboratory process on a single platform. The highly automated and robust system allows your scientists to focus on the data, not the automation.

The inline modular platform is a highly automated, flexible microplate replacement for high throughput applications. The unique combination of our Array Tape™ consumable, Nexar® liquid handling system, Soellex® thermal cycler and Araya® inline fluorescent detection instrumentation enables a continuous reel to reel process flow needed to maximize throughput and reduce costs.

Eliminates Manual Handling & Robotics

The design of Array Tape™ and the modular inline platform maintains the flexibility of microplate-based technology while virtually eliminating manual handling and complex robotics. Indexing holes along the edge of Array Tape™ accurately position and continuously feed reaction wells through the Nexar® and Araya®. Each 96 or 384-well array in Tape is labeled with a unique barcode ensuring accurate identification of individual samples during and after processing.

Streamlined Process

Here is one example of how a process can be streamlined. Consider a SNP Genotyping Application:

	Typical Process microplate-based workstations	Douglas Scientific Process using Nexar®, Soellex® and Araya®
Setup	Step 1: Dispense 8 microliters a single 384- microplate at a time Step 2: Seal the microplate Step 3: Stack the microplates	Step 1: Dispense 1 µL, seals the equivalent of 200 plates in a continuous strip of tape and winds the Array Tape™ on a reel
Process	Run microplates through PCR 16 or 32 at a time	Entire reel of Array Tape™ is loaded into the Soellex® water bath with shorter cycle time
Dry	Dry Microplate	Dry reel of Array Tape™
Scan	Scan Microplate (~ 1.5 – 2.5 minutes)	Scan entire reel ~ 20-30 seconds per microplate equivalent
Plates per day:	150 microplates (384 wells)	400
Data points per day:	57,600	153,600
Lab processing time:	10 hours	8 hours

Typical Process

microplate-based workstations

Douglas Scientific Process

using Nexar®, Soellex® and Araya®

Setup

Step 1: Dispense 8 microliters a single 384- microplate at a time

Step 2: Seal the microplate

Step 3: Stack the microplates

Step 1: Dispense 1 µL, seals the equivalent of 200 plates in a continuous strip of tape and winds the Array Tape™ on a reel

Process

Run microplates through PCR 16 or 32 at a time

Entire reel of Array Tape™ is loaded into the Soellex® water bath with shorter cycle time

Dry

Dry Microplate

Dry reel of Array Tape™

Scan

Scan Microplate (~ 1.5 – 2.5 minutes)

Scan entire reel ~ 20-30 seconds per microplate equivalent

Plates per day:

150 microplates (384 wells)

400

Data points per day:

57,600

153,600

Lab processing time:

10 hours

8 hours

Green Benefits

The environmental benefits of the Array Tape™ Platform have been evaluated based on plastic, reagent and energy consumption. The results include:

Plastic required to manufacture a 384-well microplate is 7x greater (23.1g) than a 384-well array in Tape (3.1g).
Reagent storage, handling and disposal is reduced by 80-90% due to smaller reaction volumes in Array Tape™ (<800nL/well) versus microplates (5µL/well).
The Soellex® simultaneously thermocycles up to 600 arrays, replacing 18 water baths (32 microplate capacity) that require 11x more energy (92.4kWh) or 150 block heaters (4 microplate capacity) that require 35x more energy (313.6kWh).

View all the results in our poster.

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