Automated Gravimetric Calibration to Optimize the Accuracy and Precision of TECAN Freedom EVO Liquid Handler

Abstract

High-throughput screening technologies are increasingly integrated into the formulation development process of biopharmaceuticals. The performance of liquid handling systems is dependent on the ability to deliver accurate and precise volumes of specific reagents to ensure process quality. We have developed an automated gravimetric calibration procedure to adjust the accuracy and evaluate the precision of the TECAN Freedom EVO liquid handling system. Volumes from 3 to 900 µL using calibrated syringes and fixed tips were evaluated with various solutions, including aluminum hydroxide and phosphate adjuvants, β-casein, sucrose, sodium chloride, and phosphate-buffered saline. The methodology to set up liquid class pipetting parameters for each solution was to split the process in three steps: (1) screening of predefined liquid class, including different pipetting parameters; (2) adjustment of accuracy parameters based on a calibration curve; and (3) confirmation of the adjustment. The run of appropriate pipetting scripts, data acquisition, and reports until the creation of a new liquid class in EVOware was fully automated. The calibration and confirmation of the robotic system was simple, efficient, and precise and could accelerate data acquisition for a wide range of biopharmaceutical applications.

Automation Assisted Anaerobic Phenotyping For Metabolic Engineering

“…Anticipating that there would be a need to vary the pipetting air-gap in the future to accomodate different operating volumes, we wished to develop a procedure that would enable quick and reliable determination of calibration parameters for the pipette tips. While automated gravimetric methods have been explored in 12 the past for calibrating liquid handling pipettes, these would require the presence of a specialized, on-deck high-accuracy balance with minimal air-flow to prevent evaporation [34], which may not be available on most liquid handling decks. We expected that the volume estimates calculated using the photometric standard could be used calibrate the pipettes.…”

Evaluation of disposable microfluidic chip design for automated and fast Immunoassays

“…A more sensitive substrate also requires better control on volume of reagents for lower variation. The spiral on the chip also acts as a fixed volume zone for the assay, whereas in a 96 well plate, dispense of particular liquid is dependent on the external system and can easily vary between 1% and 5% for low volume dispense [31][32][33] (1-20 ll) which can give rise to variation in the final assay results.…”

Integration of Acoustic Liquid Handling into Quantitative Analysis of Biological Matrix Samples

“…In general, the confirmation of dispensed volumes in automated liquid handlers is carried out using water or model fluids (with dyes) using gravimetric, fluorometric, or photometric approaches for quantitation. 15 The performance of liquid handlers can differ between liquids with different physical properties, such as surface tension, density, and viscosity. Calibration parameters optimized for water do not necessarily reflect the reality of pipetting different biological fluids.…”