Automated liquid handlers (ALHs) are one of the truly enabling technologies of modern life sciences, particularly in medical testing, biological research, and high high-throughput screening.

The latest equipment, instrument and system introductions to the laboratory market.

Until the mid-1980s, purification of nucleic acids was traditionally performed by phenol-chloroform extraction and alcohol precipitation, which involved tedious manual tasks with toxic substances. This approach was soon replaced by the introduction of spin-column technology.

Popular 96- and 384-well microplate-based applications are often not ideally suited for manual pipetting methods. Although readily available in most laboratories, manual pipette use in these formats is neither efficient nor consistent.

Automation solutions offer a great alternative to laborintensive manual processes. Liquid handling automation eliminates human errors and process inconsistencies over extended periods of time, resulting in an increased robustness compared to manual processes.

Marc Ferrer, Ph.D., Team Leader at the Chemical Genomics Center, which is part of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health discusses the need for automation in various laboratory settings.

By making the transition from a manual to an automated process, Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. gained more than they hoped for. The robotic solution automated a tedious manual process as well as allowed SBI scientists to extract more information from the data being collected.

We have moved past the point where general computer, word processing, and spreadsheet skills are a reasonable basis for competence in a modern laboratory.