CORE liquid handler

Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM) gathers expertise in clinical and pre-clinical research from Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet (KI) with the goal to conduct research on common diseases and contribute to development of improved and novel treatments. CMM foundation has decided to invest into a new facility for single-cell analyses to enable development of cutting-edge technologies to study cells in relevant tissues focusing on clinical applications. There is a high demand for single-cell analysis platforms that can adopt to requirements of clinical research that often requires substantial protocol optimization and adaptation to clinical logistics. There are several important technical reasons that led to a decision to purchase a Tecan Fluent instrument, as this is the only instrument that can fulfil all technical requirements of the CMM single-cell facility.

Huvudsaklig plats för byggnation/anläggning eller utförande: Stiftelsen Centrum för molekylär medicin, Visionsgatan 18, 17164 Solna.

1st Tecan Fluent.

We have chosen to adopt preparative protocols, developed and validated on a Tecan platform, from a collaborating facility at KI (SciLifeLab) as porting of existing protocols will greatly facilitate the installation, implementation and validation of protocols, resulting in cost savings and substantial reduction in the start-up time, as well as increase knowledge transfer.

Förklaring:

With reference to Chapter 6, Section 14, Paragraph 2, of the LOU, Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM) aim to procure a robot platform for pipeline work (Tecan Fluent) through direct procurement. Technical reasons:

— We are working with minute volumes of invaluable clinical samples and costly reagents. We need an instrument that is able to perform low volume liquid detections. Tecan Fluent can detect liquid volumes down to 2 μl in a standard PCR-plate we will be able to ensure proper pipetting of our samples and to reduce running costs by reducing unnecessary dead volumes of reagents. We have not found any other instrument capable of these low detection volumes that are necessary for the type of samples and protocols that we use.

— The protocols we are working with involve pipetting to and from 96- and 384-well plates in a single run. As such, we need an instrument that is capable of handling both 96- as well as 384-well disposable tips during a continuous run and without the need of user intervention. This is important as it reduces the risk of contamination of invaluable samples by keeping the instrument enclosed from the environment for the duration of the run. The Fluent fulfils this requirement.

— The protocols we are working with require at least 48 SBS positions on the work surface of the instrument to ensure a fast execution of our protocols without the need for unnecessary consumable transports. In addition, we have limited lab space and require an instrument with a minimal footprint, specifically an instrument with a footprint smaller than 170 x 80 cm (width x depth). The Fluent instrument fulfills these requirements.

— We have clinical samples in both tube and plate formats, and thus we need an instrument that can be upgradeable to transport both sample tubes and plates over the work surface within one continuous run and without user intervention. The Fluent instrument fulfils this requirement as it offers a finger exchange system that handles both of these formats.

— Due to the sensitive and unstable nature of our invaluable clinical samples we require that the instrument runs the protocol with the fastest speed possible and therefore uses a high degree of parallel processing in the x, y and z plane. Since the Fluent instrument uses 3 individual arms this decreases significantly the protocol run times. More information below. VI.3.

— As a core facility, we need to keep the per-sample cost down to a minimum, to increase throughput without increasing consumable consumption and environmental impact. Thus, we need to be able to use tip configurations containing 96 or 384 tips that are reusable and robust enough for rigorous cleaning and disinfection. The Fluent instrument fulfils this requirement as it has a multi-channel arm can be equipped with fixed tips.

In conclusion, we have not found any instrument apart from the Tecan Fluent that can fulfill all of these technical requirements our protocols. Therefore, we opt for purchasing the Tecan Fluent platform.

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