Liquid Handling: Rapid Dispense Plate Fillers

Matrix WellMate
Bio-Tek μFill
Bio-Tek Precision 2000

The screening facility has three levels of liquid handling robots, varying in speed and accuracy. The levels are as follows: high speed and lower accuracy; medium speed and medium accuracy; lower speed and high accuracy. All equipment can be used to rapidly fill both 96- and 384- well assay plates with protein solutions or cells. The instruments listed on this page cover the first two levels of liquid dispense. Please see Liquid Handling - Automated Pipettors for the other liquid handling instruments the ICCBL uses.


Matrix WellMate

Matrix WellMate

The screening facility has four general use Matrix WellMates used for 96 or 384-well shallow deep well plates. These plate fillers are high-speed liquid dispensing units.  All four units are integrated with Matrix stacker units that accommodate up to 30 plates, and the stacker units are open to the front so plates can be loaded easily while remaining in the sterile environment of the hood. The filler utilizes an 8-channel cartridge, with each nozzle fed by a separate tube and driven by a peristaltic pump. The entire tubing assembly is removable and can be autoclaved or replaced as needed in cases where sterility during dispensing is essential.

The WellMate can be programmed to fill specific plate columns as desired by the user, and is capable of dispensing 2.0 to 2000 µL in increments of 1 µL. However, we do not recommend dispense volumes of less than 5 ul, as there is significant variability for smaller volumes.  The priming volume for these liquid handlers is about 6-10mL. In addition, between each Microplate that is filled there is a 0.1mL of reagent that is an automatic prime and cannot be recovered

For ordering information about tubing cartridges, see the Screening Supplies page.


Bio-Tek μFill

Biotek MicroFill

The Screening Facility has two µFills (MicroFills) from Bio-Tek Instruments. The µFill is a single-position rapid-dispense plate filler with a volume range of 5uL to 1500uL for 384-well plates and 10-3000uL for 96-well plates. The instrument can process 96 or 384 shallow and deep-well plates, and its 16-channel manifold can fill either in about four or twelve seconds respectively. The priming volume for these liquid handlers is about 13-20mL.

Currently, the Screening Facility has both of the µFills integrated with Bio-Tek Bio-Stacks. The entire pump assembly can be removed and autoclaved for sterile liquid-handling. Pump assembly ordering information can be found on the Screening Supplies page.



Bio-Tek Precision 2000

BioTek Precision 2000

The screening facility has two Bio-Tek Precision 2000 robots, (medium speed, medium accuracy) liquid handling devices. They are highly versatile devices equipped with an eight-channel dispense manifold and an eight-channel pipette head. The instruments support a wide variety of fluid transfer operations for both 96 or 384 well microplates including reagent addition, continuous reagent dispensing, sample transfer, plate replication, serial dilutions, and mixing within a well. The robots can accurately pipette volumes between 5 and 120 ul. Using the dispense-only manifold, the minimum volume transferred is 15 ul. The priming volume when using the dispense manifold is about 20mL. When using the pipettor an additional 2mL's is required to cover the bottom of the reservoir.

If you use this robot frequently, you can purchase your own 8-channel dispense manifold as well as tips that are compatible with the instrument. The ordering information can be found on the Screening Supplies page.

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