QualAssure® Solutions for MVS

Optimize your automated liquid handlers with the ideal liquid for your application.

MVS QualAssure solutions can measure performance over a wide volume range of 0.0001 to 350 μL. QualAssure solutions are available for aqueous and non-aqueous volume transfers, including dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), PCR master mix-like (PCRMix ) and serum and plasma-like solutions (SerumSub and PlasProxy)

Introducing the new PlasProxy and SerumSub

Do you know the volume you are delivering in your assays?

The PlasProxy and SerumSub QualAssure solutions can help improve efficiency in automating assays containing plasma or serum and you will waste less time analyzing inconsistent results.

Simple volume verification,
with results in less than 10 minutes

Dispense Solutions

Dispense the Artel QualAssure solution and diluent into a verification plate & mix.

No need to prepare in-house dyes or generate a standard curve.

Read the plate

MVS measures absorbance values and generates volume measurements independently in each well of the verification plate.

No weighing is involved and environmental controls are not required.

Verify and record performance

The system automatically calculates accuracy and precision for individual volume values, for each tip or channel and provides summary statistics by well, row, and column.

Results are stored in ArtelWare or MVS Data Manager software, and reports are ready to print or export.

Dispense: Starting with the default parameters on the automated liquid handler, dispense Artel QualAssure solution and diluent into Artel Verification Plate.

Measure: After mixing on the plate shaker, read the plate on the MVS.

Assess: The system calculates volume accuracy and precision for each well and provides statistics.

Adjust: Based on results, adjust (as needed) parameters such as aspiration speed, dispense speed, delay blowout, speed blowout movement blowout, initial stroke, aspirate height, dispense height and volume offset.

Artel just released their new PCRMix solution and this really is a game changer. If we had this during development, it would have saved us hundreds of development hours as we tried to optimize our master mix.

Rob Grbac

Rob Grbac
Director of Technical Laboratory Services, Clinical Reference Laboratory

According to customers using the PCRMix QualAssure solution, they found that it behaves like the commercial master mixes they are using and therefore meets their needs. They also indicate that integrating PCRMix into their workflow ensures accurate assay results.

Dr. Nathaniel Hentz

Dr. Melinda Gold
Product Manager
QualAssure Manufacturing

Metrological Traceability

Metrological traceability is maintained to the international system of units (SI). Photometric standards are calibrated at the National Physical Laboratory of the United Kingdom. Qualification of reference spectrophotometers meets applicable standards such as the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), ISO, CLSI, and ASTM International.

Metrological Reference Standards


Solution Manufacturing

  • Solutions are manufactured in a HEPA filtered clean room.
  • Precise chemical formulations are made according to gravimetric and volumetric standard operating procedures by qualified chemists.
  • Solutions are manufactured, preserved and sub-micron filtered to ensure stability and performance.
  • Release testing is done in Artel’s accredited ISO 17025 laboratory.

PCS QualAssure Manufacturing


Quality Testing

  • Calibration of all solutions is performed with very precise methods.
    • ±0.0004 AU for 730 nm measurements
    • Accuracy measured with uncertainty as low as 0.033%
  • The Artel laboratory maintains an ISO 17025 scope of accreditation for calibration methods used to test all manufactured solutions.
  • All laboratory chemists go through a rigorous training and qualification plan prior to performing methods.
  • Proficiency testing via inter-laboratory and intra-laboratory comparison monitors the competence of all laboratory chemists.
  • The laboratory environment meets the requirements of ISO 8655 and NIST SOP 14.
  • The laboratory maintains a registered quality management system according to ISO 9001 which ensures document control, record control, risk/opportunity, improvement, corrective action, internal audits and management review.

Tested Solutions


Filling & Labeling

Filling is conducted in a clean room environment. Quality checks are performed throughout the filling and labeling process and records are kept documenting all data collected and indicating personnel involved in each step.

Tested Solutions

Aqueous QualAssure

Optimizing liquid classes can seem tedious but with an MVS, the process is fast and straightforward. Simply set up your assay and use the MVS reagent that best mimics your liquid. You can test different liquid class settings and then use the MVS to measure how the setting affects liquid handling accuracy and precision.

The above statistics presented in the “Before and After” ALH liquid class optimization figure demonstrate how optimizing liquid classes can improve accuracy and precision, ensuring reproducible results.

Aqueous QualAssure solutions will help you:

  • Verify the accuracy and precision of all automated liquid handlers (1–384 dispensing tips) and handheld multichannel pipettes
  • Measure performance over a wide volume range of 0.0001 to 350 µL
  • Easily optimize liquid delivery volumes
DMSO QualAssure

DMSO Figure 1Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) has become one of the most important solvents used for high-throughput screening (HTS) and compound management applications due to its ability to readily dissolve a wide range of compounds. DMSO has very different physical properties than water it behaves differently when handled by air-displacement pipettors, automated liquid handlers or acoustic droplet ejectors, creating the need for a solvent-specific volume verification method such as that provided by the DMSO QualAssure for the MVS. The MVS DMSO QualAssure solutions can measure performance over a wide volume range of 0.0001 to 9.999 µL.

A 100% DMSO QualAsssure solution has been developed for use with the MVS. DMSO QualAssure is capable of measuring volumes down to 10 nL. As with all MVS QualAssure solutions, results are traceable to international standards.

Research has shown that the volumes dispensed during drug screening programs can have a significant effect on the results obtained by assay screens.1 Any error made during these deliveries affects the concentration of the drug candidate and can lead to misleading data about compound activity being generated.

DMSO Figure 1DMSO has very different physical properties than water, the liquid most commonly used for calibration and performance verification, therefore,  it behaves differently when handled by air-displacement pipettors or acoustic droplet ejectors, creating the need for a solvent-specific volume verification methods, which is provided by DMSO E for the MVS.

Artel has developed and characterized a 100% DMSO-based dye solution for use with the Artel MVS® Multichannel Verification System. This article discusses the challenges and performance capabilities of a DMSO-based dual-dye solution developed for the MVS. The DMSO-based solution is capable of measuring dispensed volumes as small as 10 nL. Data presented suggests that if two successive liquid transfers are inaccurate, critical reagent concentrations could be affected by as much as 50%.2

This data demonstrates that 100% DMSO E adds a significant capability to the MVS for measuring liquid handling instrument performance. This capability answers the need for those scientists working in the drug discovery arena for a fast and reliable method to verify that their liquid handling instruments are accurately and precisely dispensing DMSO-based solutions.

DMSO-based QualAssure solutions will help you:

  • Ensure concentrations of compounds in assay plates by measuring nL volumes of 100% DMSO
  • Measure performance of acoustic dispensing systems and other low-volume liquid dispensers
  • Standardize nL volume delivery across liquid handler types with DMSO- and aqueous-based solutions

Customer Testimonial

“Our laboratory has used Artel’s MVS for the last five years to validate volume transfers for our automated liquid handling devices. While the MVS has proved valuable as an easy to use aqueous liquid volume validation, most of our liquid transfers involve moving our compound library which is solvated in DMSO. We are eagerly looking forward to Artel’s new DMSO-based Sample Solutions to make it even easier to validate the liquid transfers of DMSO solutions on our systems.”

Jason Haelewyn, Celgen
PCRMix QualAssure
PCRMix QualAssure are solutions for MVS that have been manufactured with a proprietary formulation that includes some of the main constituents that comprise commercial master mix. PCRMix is built to mimic the rheological properties of commercial master mix. It is an “off the shelf” solution that allows you to verify the volume of master mix that is dispensed by your automated liquid handler.Regular aqueous solutions are too different to be used for optimization of master mix liquid classes. While it is possible to make a more viscous MVS solution using the Alternative Solution Helper, that can be time-consuming to do, and you don’t really know if your viscous Alternative Solution mimics the behavior of master mix. PCRMix can save money by decreasing the amount of time you spend optimizing your liquid handler and preventing costly pipetting mistakes.
Figure 1. This data demonstrates the difference in dispensed volume with Aqueous QualASsure and PCRMix QualAssure at ~4°C using an ALH optimized with PCRMix QualAssure solution to dispense 9.9µL. Figure 2. This data demonstrates a comparison of PCRMix Sample Solution to the pipetted volumes of leading commercial master mix at ~4°C using an ALH optimized with PCRMix Sample Solution.

qPCR ResultsUnder-Delivery of qPCR Master Mix Alters Assay Results

The volume of PCR master mix can have a direct effect on qPCR results. qPCR reaction accuracy is dependent on the master mix performance and the volume added. Under-delivery of master mix can lead to unexpected Cq values. In this example, if the scientist had accidentally underdelivered the master mix by 40% (they should have delivered 10uL but actually delivered 6uL) the results would have yielded a Cq value significantly higher than if the correct volume of master mix had been dispensed. Falsely high Cq values translates to improper quantification of gene of interest in the sample by producing a false low concentration. This further translates to the possibility of mis-diagnosing a patient. All because an incorrect volume of master mix had been dispensed.

PCRMix QualAssure solutions will help you:

    • Ensure master mix delivery volume is accurate and precise
    • Decrease variability of PCR assay results and even false results



“The new PCRMix is another tool in Artel’s toolbox, allowing quick optimization of liquid classes for tricky pipetting of viscous liquids, particularly at small volumes.”

Artel Customer
SerumSub QualAssure
SerumSub QualAssure solutions for MVS have been manufactured to match the rheological properties of human and various animal sera, allowing you to quickly and easily verify the volume of serum that is dispensed by your automated liquid handler. Regular aqueous solutions are too different to be used for optimization of serum liquid classes and serum is notoriously tricky to pipette. With that assays requiring serum samples are frequently trying to quantify small concentrations of hormones or other biological markers which makes accuracy of serum dispenses critical.
Creating liquid classes for serum is challenging and can even be wasteful, but with SerumSub you’ll be able to spend less time and reagents for optimizing your liquid handler and prevent errors and costly pipetting mistakes that may result from testing gravimetrically or not testing at all.
Using SerumSub is a reliable way to optimize automated liquid handlers so that they deliver the correct volume of serum. Delivering the expected volume of serum can have implications for reducing false or inconsistent results. SerumSub gives you the ability to easily fine tune a serum-like liquid class and prevent errors from the start.
Figure 1. This data demonstrates a comparison of SerumSub QualAssure at 100 µL to the pipetted volumes of human and animal sera using an ALH optimized with SerumSub QualAssure. Figure 2. This data demonstrates a comparison of SerumSub QualAssure at 25 µL to the pipetted volumes of human and animal sera using an ALH optimized with SerumSub QualAssure.



“SerumSub is a great substitute for actual serum and during our testing, did perform similarly to pipetting actual serum on our instrument.”

Mallory Chmiel, QPS
PlasProxy QualAssure
Artel has developed PlasProxy QualAssure, a plasma-like reference solution with liquid handling properties that are analogous to several commonly used plasmas.
Physicians and scientists rely on accurate and conclusive results to make critical decisions related to patient health, but because of the unique rheological properties of plasma such as viscosity and density, it is difficult to achieve the results needed. With PlasProxy, you will optimize your liquid handler and maintain consistent, accurate results.
Figure 1. This data depicts the percent difference in volume delivered of various plasma compared to PlasProxy QualAssure using an automated liquid handler optimized to dispense 10 μL of PlasProxy QualAssure. Figure 2. This data depicts the percent difference in volume delivered of various plasma compared to PlasProxy QualAssure using an automated liquid handler optimized to dispense 200 μL of PlasProxy QualAssure.
Figure 1. This data depicts the dispense volume of PlasProxy QualAssure compared to various plasma using an ALH liquid class optimized to dispense 200 μL of PlasProxy QualAssure. Figure 2. This data depicts the dispense volume of PlasProxy QualAssure compared to various plasma using an ALH liquid class optimized to dispense 10 μL of PlasProxy QualAssure.

“PlasProxy is a practical solution to improving the workflows of assays that involve dispensing plasma.”

Melinda Gold, PhD, Artel
Alternative Solutions

Custom test liquids using assay-specific reagents can be prepared and employed to assess volume transfer performance of a liquid handler or multichannel pipettes using the Artel MVS. Aqueous dye-based MVS Stock Solution is combined with a solvent-of-interest to create the alternative test solution. Alternative Solutions can be made for Target volumes between 0.4 and 49.9 µL in a 96 Well Standard Profile plate, or between 0.1 and 9.9 µL in a 384 Well Standard Profile plate.

Custom test liquids can be prepared to assess liquid handler performance for assay-specific reagents. There are, however, many considerations when preparing and testing alternative test solutions.

Support & Ordering
Technical Services
Artel’s dedicated metrologists, scientists, engineers, and support specialists are here to answer your questions, troubleshoot problems, and help you ensure accurate, precise liquid delivery for reliable assay results.
Tel: 1-888-406-3463, opt 2 (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET)
Email: [email protected]
Online: Submit online request
Ordering
Please place orders by telephone, fax, email, or mail. Our customer service representatives are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

 

MVS Part Numbers

Phone: 207-854-0860 | 888-406-3463 toll-free (U.S. and Canada)
Email: [email protected]
Mail:
Artel
25 Bradley Drive
Westbrook, ME 04092 USA
International
Fax*: 207-854-0867

 

*Please include a fax number or email address for confirmation of fax orders.
Orders From outside the U.S. and Canada, please see our International Distributor List for contact information.

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