Accessible Automation for Liquid Handling Workflows

Liquid handling is a foundational step underlying many processes in life science workflows, including polymerase chain reaction, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, compound screening, genomic sequencing, and enzymatic experiments.¹ Scientists widely use manual pipettes because of their versatility, ease of use, and low upfront cost. However, repetitive liquid handling tasks and increasing sample numbers make manual approaches time-intensive and tedious.² Additionally, researchers and technicians often find it difficult to maintain accuracy and reproducibility during extended manual pipetting sessions. Even small volume errors can have a substantial effect on data quality, potentially compromising the reliability of downstream experiments and analyses.

Automation Benefits and Adoption Barriers

As laboratories seek ways to improve productivity and reduce human pipetting errors, scientists can leverage automated liquid handling systems. These instruments help obtain more consistent results and free up researchers and technicians to focus on more complex work that is not easily automated.² This is critical for teams involved in reagent manufacturing, quality testing, and drug discovery research, where errors force scientists to scrap product batches or repeat complex screening experiments.

Although many laboratories have repetitive liquid handling tasks that would benefit from automation, existing platforms have their own adoption barriers. Traditional large-scale liquid handlers are often expensive and have substantial footprints, which impede their use in small- or medium-throughput laboratories with limited budgets and bench space.³ Furthermore, many robotic pipetting platforms require computer coding expertise to develop new methods. For individuals who lack a programming background, this necessity makes building, modifying, and troubleshooting pipetting routines a frustrating and laborious task. Consequently, small and medium-sized groups may hesitate to adopt liquid handling systems with steep learning curves and substantial training requirements.³

Finding the Middle Ground in Liquid Handling

Scientists require a platform that bridges the gap between manual liquid handling and large-scale pipetting robots. The BRAND® Liquid Handling Station (LHS) from BRANDTECH Scientific is a compact and cost-effective automated pipetting robot that offers the flexibility and ease of use of a manual pipette while delivering the reduced hands-on requirements and improved consistency associated with larger automated systems.

With seven configurable work positions, this versatile laboratory solution can precisely and reproducibly transfer volumes from 1µL to 1,000µL and is compatible with numerous vessel types and sizes, including 6-well to 384-well microplates, cuvettes, 0.2mL to 5mL microtubes, 96- and 384-well PCR plates, and reagent reservoirs. Users can easily switch between single-channel and eight-channel pipetting by changing out the platform’s calibrated pipetting heads or liquid ends without any special tools. As a result, this accessible system is suitable for most small- and medium-throughput pipetting tasks, such as sample preparation, serial dilutions, cherry picking, pooling, and plate reformatting and replication.

Moreover, the BRAND® LHS comes with intuitive software that does not require any programming skills. Its straightforward graphical user interface helps guide scientists through method creation. Users can also inform the software of the liquid’s properties, such as viscosity, volatility, surface tension, or foaming, to ensure the liquid handling routine is using the ideal pipetting settings for a specific liquid type. Additionally, the software’s simulation function enables researchers and technicians to visualize their new methods before running the program. This feature makes developing routines stress-free by empowering users to check if they have correctly configured the method’s settings, ultimately saving precious samples, reagents, consumables, money, and time. The software also supports audit reporting, sample tracking, and user management capabilities, helping laboratories maintain traceability and confidence in their data, which are crucial for quality testing environments.

Overall, the BRAND® LHS is a dependable and economical automated pipetting system designed to deliver user-friendly method setup, accurate liquid handling, and reliable results.