Labcyte understands that every experiment and every compound could lead to the next breakthrough. Our customers have produced better quality data and realized reduced costs in working without tips and have produced bet. The top 10 major pharmaceutical companies are all Echo liquid handler users.
Increased quality without tips
Numerous publications have shown that active compounds which would have been missed with traditional liquid handling were discovered using the Echo platform. There are several contribution factors including adherent compounds that remain in pipette tips, inexact pipetting and multiplication of error due to the unavoidable issues with tip based serial dilution and plastic leachates that effect compound activity.
In the first example below, Bristol-Myers Squibb published data showing one-third of all active compounds in a 1,085 compound sample size were only discovered as active using the Echo platform.
This figure shows the result of a Bristol-Myers Squibb study rescreening a library on a traditional liquid handler compared to the Echo liquid handler. (Download the paper)
In a recent patent filing by AstraZeneca, the Echo platform was credited with demonstrating IC50 activity at concentrations that were 200x less in some instances.
The table shows the results from AstraZeneca comparing IC50 values from a traditional liquid handler in comparison to the Echo liquid handler. (View the patent)
Reduced cost without tips
The Echo liquid handling platform eliminates the need to make intermediate dilution plates, greatly reducing the total plate cost. Because it is non-contact transfer, there is no cost for fixed-tip washing and no cost for disposable tips.
Without the Echo liquid handler, disposable tips are the only way to avoid cross-contamination—but they have a cost that adds up quickly. The tables show conservative estimates of tip usage for two processes: 35,000 PCR experiments and 1,000,000 small compound library screens. Extrapolate back to tip cost, and the disposal cost for all those contaminated tips, and you will find the Echo liquid handler will pay for itself very quickly.
| Application | Protocol | Plates | Tip Usage (Traditional Process) | Echo Tip Usage |
|---|
| qPCR | 1. Transfer mastermix to 384-well plate | 100 plates/screen | 384-38,400 | 0 |
| 2. Transfer primers/probes to 384-well plate | 384-38,400 | 0 |
| 3. Transfer cDNA to 384-well plate | 38,400 | 0 |
| | | | Total Tips:
39,168-115,200/screen | Echo Tips:
0 |
| Application | Protocol | Plates | Tip Usage (Traditional Process) | Echo Tip Usage |
|---|
Compound
management
(1,000,000 compound library) | 1. Make 5 copies of 384-well intermediate plates | 39,000 assay plates | 1,000,000 | 0 |
| 2. Make 3 384-well assay plates per intermediate plate | 5,000,000 | 0 |
| | | | Total Tips:
6,000,000 | Echo Tips:
0 |
Reduced waste without tips
For processes where disposable tips are not used, or tips are washed between uses, the cost of wash fluids and disposing of that wash fluid is very significant. In the compound management example above, the cost of DMSO for washing between transfers and disposal of that DMSO could be up to $100,000/year. This is completely eliminated with the Echo platform.
Many customers have altered their process to run much more efficiently when using an Echo liquid handler. Some possibilities that reduce plate costs as well as tip costs:
- With lower transfer volumes at good precision and accuracy, 96-well or 384-well assays can be run in 384-well, 1536-well or denser formats.
- Many processes no longer require intermediate plates.
- Better quality data has also allowed customers to reduce numbers of replicate wells, control wells, or standard curve points.