Ultra-high-throughput screening (uHTS) is an automated methodology for conducting hundreds of thousands of biological or chemical screening tests per day using liquid handling devices, sensitive detectors, robotics, data processing, and control software.

With the rapid pace and high demands of research that dominate today’s research laboratories, scientists require faster, more dependable, and safer means of accomplishing detail-oriented and potentially tedious liquid handling tasks, while producing reliable results that do not waste expensive reagents.

Although a mature product category, microplate readers are evolving towards greater functionality, flexibility, and throughput. All top instrument makers are focusing at least some efforts on multiplexing.

Microplate readers are widely used in research, drug discovery, bioassay validation, QC, and manufacturing processes for the detection of biological, chemical, or physical processes in samples contained in microtiter plates.

Results of our first Lab Automation Survey reveal both pros and cons of automating lab processes

In both industrial and academic labs, researchers are actively increasing the number of automated applications and tasks in order to improve performance and productivity while reducing costs and streamlining research. These changes include automating

The motivation to maximize laboratory automation is as powerful as it is simple—laboratories must produce more high quality data—faster and cheaper. Today, most envision high throughput (HTP) automation as a robotically-driven integration

From protein sample preparation to next-generation sequencing to cell biology or the now more traditional HTS assays, many scientists are trying to eliminate the numerous manual steps that add cost and introduce variability to laboratory procedures.

Lab automation projects have become cooperative activities between lab and IT groups. This is part of the evolution of lab systems.

Driven by the pressure to control costs while generating better quality data, automated, unattended, and reliable operation is what lab professionals are looking for from their instruments.

Nanotechnology is still early in its commercial development, but many scientists agree it could become a part of everyone’s daily life in the not-too-distant future.

Experimentation in microtiter plates exemplifies the two dominating trends in the life sciences: higher throughput and smaller sample size. Microplate handlers are the robotic glue that connects microplate readers, liquid dispensers, plate storage systems, plate washers, and other equipment essential for microplate-based research and development.