Experts' review: MACHEREY-NAGEL
Running MACHEREY-NAGEL kits on flowbot ONE
In collaboration with Flow Robotics, MACHEREY-NAGEL experts have developed four application notes showcasing the performance of their kits on the flowbot® ONE liquid handler.
The kits used include the following:
• NucleoSpin® 96 Plant II kit
• NucleoSpin® 96 Soil kit
• NucleoSpin® 96 Plasmid kit
• NucleoSpin® 96 DNA RapidLyse Kit
All experiments were set up by MACHEREY-NAGEL’s Senior Application Specialist Christian Wolff and Application Specialist Julian Breuer.
Having worked with a wide range of liquid handlers, they shared their experience with running their kits on the flowbot ONE.
A good option for first-time users
Christian Wolff and Julian Breuer immediately highlighted the advantages of the flowbot ONE’s user-friendliness while gaining high reproducibility in both yield and purity.
“Particularly the process of generating protocols was easy since there’s no coding or scripting required, and that the software is not bloated. The options that are available in the user interface meet all needs and do not distract the user, which can sometimes be the case when facing all advanced options at once with other liquid handlers,” explains Senior Application Specialist Christian Wolff.
The most notable results they got from running their kits on the flowbot were consistency of data and high-quality in the way in which research can be carried out.
A lot of new users feel like automation can be a little overwhelming. We are familiar with working with different liquid handlers and find the flowbot ONE software suitable for new users because they can just click on their source and their target and type in their volumes.
That makes it as simple as possible and means that the more advanced settings are not in their way. So, it’s easier for untrained users to find their way around the software.
It’s not necessarily the end results you see on the application notes that matters most, but the process;
how you get to the results and that you have the peace of mind that the reproducibility and data integrity is really high. The flowbot ONE ensures that advantage for our kits.
The process: defining the workflow and setting up the protocol
Their initial method development for the NucleoSpin® 96 Plant II kit took only around 18-22 hours in total.
This includes the initial setup of the vacuum manifold, programming the flowbot ONE software, iterations of liquid handling parameters and final verification tests.
“The nice thing about designing a workflow on the flowbot ONE is that it’s modular, meaning you have 12 positions, and you can place your labware wherever you see fit. So, it’s easy to define a deck layout and then just place your labware accordingly. And with the flowbot ONE scanning QR codes on the labware itself, the setup is also fast.
After setting up the vacuum pump, all there was left to do was to evaluate the predefined labware and do some minor changes which was made easy by the component editor. Then we started looking at the liquid transfers and making sure the vacuum worked as it should.
Once we had a general workflow established, we could easily transfer it to the other kits.
We did that by duplicating the protocol in the software and adjusting it to fit the other extractions,” explains
Application Specialist Julian Breuer and adds;
With no scripting or coding required, the protocols were soon ready to run and showed consistent recovery of DNA with reliable
reproducibility in yield and purity, and high throughput capabilities
MACHEREY-NAGEL offers protocols for all kits on the flowbot ONE free of charge. Contact their technical automation support at automation-bio@mn-net.com.
Download Application Notes
• Automated isolation of total DNA from plant samples
• Automated isolation of total DNA from diverse soil types
• Automated mini preparation of plasmid DNA
• Automated isolation of total DNA from tissue and organs
All in all, it’s a low barrier of entry to implement automation with the flowbot ONE since the setup is so easy.
You get the benefits of automation for all those different sample kits. I feel like that’s an overall highlight from a scientific standpoint, since no matter what your field of research is, every scientist likes consistency in their data
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