ATS-100 Acoustic Transfer System calibration using Artel MVS and DMSO Range E dye: A practical approach to developing calibration curves

Overview

The ATS-100 transfers one or more droplets of a given fixed size (e.g. 1nl, 2.5nl, 10nl, etc.) in multiples necessary to attain the desired transfer volume. A fast and efficient calibration process is highly desirable since the ATS-100 is calibrated independently for each drop size . Each calibration consists of a set of numbers that assigns a “burst value” to each of 36 possible liquid levels that correspond to an amount of liquid present in the well of a source plate. At run time, the instrument interrogates the liquid found in a source well, compares it to the calibration values and determines the appropriate burst to use to successfully eject droplets into a target destination.

Here we discuss a process utilizing the Artel MVS for volumetric measurement. The MVS uses dual-dye photometric measurements that are robust against environmental influences, which together with the Artel-certified Calibrator Plate, Verification Plates, Plate Reader, and dyes are said to support an unbroken chain of traceability to national and international standards.

The process here uses the new Artel DMSO Range E dye which closely represents the materials (DMSO compound solutions) and can be used to measure volumes (0.0001-0.2999ul in a 384 well plate and 0.0001-0.9999ul in a 96 well plate) typically transferred by the ATS-100 in sample management operations.

Additionally, this process benefits from the elimination of out-of-process steps and their associated opportunities for error, and closely represents production conditions. Details of the preparation and operation of the Artel MVS system itself are beyond the scope of this discussion. In summary, MVS measures absorbance values and generates individual volume measurements, accuracy and precision for each tip or channel and summary statistics by well, row, and column.

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