New liquid handling platform makes assay development faster

Published: 24-Jan-2017

Dragonfly discovery reduces assay development time and improves robustness in high throughput screening


TTP Labtech has announced the commercial premiere of its dragonfly discovery liquid handling technology at SLAS 2017, in Washington DC.

The company is a designer and developer of automated instrumentation and consumables for life science applications.

Building on the success of the first dragonfly liquid handling platform – dragonfly crystal (designed for crystallographers) – TTP Labtech has developed a second generation of the dragonfly technology.

The new dragonfly discovery is intended to address the challenges in validating transferring assays into high throughput screening (HTS).

The company claims that their low-volume liquid handling technology reduces assay development time and improves assay robustness in screening.

The dragonfly discovery in intended to provide scientists with a standard platform where they can easily develop complex assays and screen them in a robust and cost efficient manner.

The new platform enables low volume dispensing (200 nL upwards) from a positive displacement disposable pipette (with 4 mL capacity) and 96, 384 & 1,536 well compatibility.

This is to allow assays to be developed directly in high density plate format using a common liquid handling platform. The same platform can also perform assay validation and HTS, simplifying assay development and potentially smoothing transition in to a high throughput environment.

Another feature is a new software capability and user interface that supports the design and development of complex assays. Joby Jenkins, Director of Product Strategy at TTP Labtech, said: “In the development of dragonfly discovery, our aim was to redefine reagent dispensing.

“Positive displacement pipetting is well known to be agnostic of liquid class and offer exceptional reliability, but it has never before been used for non-contact bulk reagent dispensing.

“This, combined with the fact the tips are disposable, results in an extremely accurate and reliable dispense technology, which is something the industry has been crying out for.”

TTP Labtech will be presenting live demos of dragonfly discovery at booth #1105 at SLAS 2017, Washington, DC, USA, February 4th-8th 2017.

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