Nano-Plotter TM. Microarraying and Picolitre Pipetting

Transcription

1 Nano-Plotter TM Microarraying and Picolitre Pipetting

2 GESIM Nano-Plotter TM Microarraying and Picolitre Pipetting Non-contact spotting of picolitre droplets ensures utmost flexibility and quality for the fabrication of complex biochips. For many years, Nano-Plotters have been reliable companions for both research and production. Key Features Drop on demand ensures arbitrary spot layout (including unlimited replicates) No scratches on sensitive surfaces (slides, membranes, microtitre plates, sensor chips ) via non-contact technology Homogeneous spots Spot volumes can be changed by varying the number of drops per spot No need to adjust samples to pipettes: either vary pipetting parameters or choose from different dispenser types Spotting on the fly for ultimate speed Dew point pipetting by chilling and humidification Alternative dispensers available for large volumes or viscous media Countless accessories, e. g. automatic target recognition The GeSiM Nano-Plotter TM is not just another microarray spotter. Modular hardware and an open software guarantee utmost flexibility to tackle even the most demanding print job. GeSiM s own piezo dispensers handle a wide range of liquids, not only protein and DNA, and eject droplets as small as 50 picolitres. Microscope-based image processing makes printing onto microelectrodes or other tiny elements easy. Customised Nano-Plotter TM versions, e.g. for integration into automated production lines, are available on request. A few applications Microarrays for research, diagnostics and drug discovery (DNA, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids etc.) Spotting of beads and living cells Spotting into 96-well plates and onto many other substrates Pipetting of miniaturized assays Coating of biosensors, usually aided by automatic image processing

3 Configuration System Platforms NP2.1: Small platform for max. 55 slides Work decks, cooling and humidification The area inside the hood can be varied. Various removable slide trays (also tailor-made) and trays for MTPs are available so that one can trade in slide capacity for source MTPs. NP2.1: Standard layout for 5 x 11 slides (up to 26 mm x 76 mm) and one sample plate NP2.1/E: Large platform for max. 120 slides The Nano-Plotter TM comes in two different sizes with the following common features: Small footprint Includes dust cover Z-sensor for height profile measurement of targets 1 16 independent piezoelectric pipetting tips with full fluidic control Different tip layouts on the pipetting head (pitch in parentheses): 1 x 8 (4.5 mm), 1 x 6 (9 mm), 2 x 8 (9/4.5 mm), etc. Sample aspiration from 96-well or 384- well microtitre plates (MTPs) XY repetition accuracy ± 10 µm, encoder-controlled, step width 2 µm Travel speed up to 500 mm/s Function test in stroboscope of each pipette tip after sample aspiration Removable target tray Array density up to 3000/cm 2 Extra fast travelling mode and spotting on the fly (spotting while travelling) NP2.1/E: Configurations for 5 x 23 slides with one sample plate (top) and 3 x 23 slides with four sample plates (bottom). More layouts are available. Slide trays have handles and lock into place. Having more than one tray saves time, as you can load and unload one tray while the other one is in the machine. A chiller plate with temperature sensor allows the cooling of slides, e. g. to keep spots moist. Technical Data Nano-Plotter TM NP2.1 Nano-Plotter TM NP2.1/E Dispensing area / slide tray (width x depth, outer dimensions) 302 mm x 400 mm 645 mm x 400 mm Traversing range in XY-direction (width x depth) 427 mm x 341 mm 777 mm x 341 mm Footprint main unit 623 mm x 509 mm 973 mm x 509 mm Height (incl. cover) 375 mm 375 mm Weight (incl. cover) 30 kg 50 kg Max. pipetting height 50 mm Pipetting channels Power supply V, max. 200 W Slide tray removed from cooling chuck

4 GESIM Nano-Plotter TM Piezoelectric Pipetting Decks with vacuum or spring fixation exist, but are only useful for pin tool spotting, as the smooth touch-less operation does not move slides. Decks holding microtitre plates (6 for NP2.1, 12 for NP2.1/E) are available to produce microarrays in microtitre wells. The standard slide tray has locating pins for accurate slide positioning. Turning the bars upside down creates a flat surface onto which any substrate can be placed. And the space between the bars is magnetic, helping to fix membranes by metal strips. Of course, cooling of source MTPs and humidification is possible to reduce evaporation and allow dew point pipetting. GeSiM Piezo Pipettes SUBSTANCES SUCCESSFULLY DISPENSED BY GESIM S PIEZOELECTRIC PIPETTING TECHNOLOGY: Acetic anhydride, acetone (propanone), acetonitrile (ethanenitrile), betaine (N,N,N-trimethylglycine), up to 3 M (up to 1.5 M for Pico-Tip), chloroform (trichloromethane), cyclohexanone, dextran solu- tions, detergents (e. g % Genapol C050, 2 % Triton X-100, 2% Tween-20), dichlorobenzene, dichloromethane + 2 % trichloroacetic acid, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), all mixing ratios with water, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 1,4,-dioxane, DNA (PCR product < 2 kbp < 3 mg/ml in buffer, plasmid < 4 kbp < 1 mg/ml), ethanol, ethylene glycol, moderate concentrations, N-FMOC-Ile-OH, 200 mm in DMF, up to 40 % glycerol in water, isopropanol (2-propanol), iodine in tetrahydrofuran/pyridine/h2o 3:75:20:75 (v/v), liquid crystals (Merck Licristal ZLI and Merck Licristal MLC-6681), MALDI matrix (alpha-cyano-4-hydroxy-cinnamic acid GeSiM s piezoelectric tips are made of silicon and glass by micromachining (reactive ion etching, anodic bonding etc.). Samples come only in contact with silicon dioxide (the Si surface is oxidized). Each tip is individually actuated; sample uptake and washing are done by syringe pumps. The minimum dead volume (additional sample) is approx. 1 µl. Unused sample can be returned to the well after spotting. Various arrangements on the pipette head are possible. Two-row pipette head for up to 16 piezo dispensers Tips are thoroughly rinsed on the inside and the outside to avoid contamination. DNA solutions (e. g. 0.1 mg/ml oligos) are washed away in seconds. Proteins and peptides may need longer, and in special cases additional wash fluid (detergent, acid, base etc.) is taken from a reservoir, a well or a second wash bowl. Solids dissolved in organic solvents are spotted by putting a solvent plug and an air gap between sample and system water. Piezo tips for different droplet volumes Nano-Tip J nl Nano-Tip A-J nl Pico-Tip J nl Slide deck, coolable micro-plate holders and smoothly operating ultrasonic humidifier Special pipette tips e. g. Nano-Tip HV-J (for highly viscous samples) Nano-Tip H-J (heatable) Nano-Tip AR-J (thinned for printing into 96-well MTPs) Wash cycle in the normal (top) and the optional extra wash station (bottom)

5 Pipetting Cycle Stroboscope check of the piezo tips Each piezoelectric tip is tested by analysing the stroboscope image of the flying droplets before and after spotting. If no droplet is detected, maybe caused by an empty well, the pipette is switched off and the array is repaired later. (If dry spots are visible, a microscope can search for missing spots!) Droplet volume and speed depend on the sample, mainly viscosity. Computing a body of rotation from the droplet contour gives a rough volume estimation; the speed is measured by analysing the droplet pattern at two time points. You can thus optimize pipette parameters so that all samples are spotted VIDEO with the same speed. If GesiM s microfluidic flow sensor is placed Sample Optimising dispense Spotting Emptying and Additional rinse in the tube system, it can measure the flow aspiration parameters and washing cycle with extra during the stroboscope test, This provides functionality test wash fluid (optional) a very accurate droplet volume determination. Stroboscope image (left), 8-fold flow sensor on a syringe pump unit (centre) and flow sensor graph (right). A flow rate of 1.7 µl/min at a frequency of 100 Hz corresponds to a droplet volume of 280 pl. Viscous samples and large volumes GeSiM manufactures a variety of other dispense heads. Viscous media can be delivered by our heatable piezo dispensers. We also offer heatable systems for bulk piezo pipetting with large sample reservoirs. And finally there is a solenoid valve dispenser for nanolitre volumes. Third-party dispensers with piezo or pneumatic valves can also be used; they work at viscosities of up to a few thousand mpa s. And yes, even pins. The Nano-Plotter TM syringe unit can also be used for bulk displacement dispensing. Passive capillary tips or adapters for disposable tips are available on request. Please consult our Nano-Plotter catalogue for details and more spare parts.. Special dispensing systems from GeSiM. Left, heatable piezo tip that is compatible with microtitre plates, with additional temperature sensor cable in a Nano-Plotter. Centre, heatable bulk piezo dispenser with reservoir (without fluidics). It can deliver droplets as small as 10 pl. Right, glass capillary dispenser with solenoid valve for higher viscosity and volumes of > 50 nl. Needs a fluidic system with overpressure.

6 GESIM Nano-Plotter TM Special Equipment and Software Handling of thousands of samples All Nano-Plotters can be combined with plate hotels. This here from Thermo allows automatic handling of up to 56 MTPs. Plate storage is temperature- and humidity-controlled. A lid handler guarantees the transfer of covered MTPs, especially for quickly evaporating samples. Spotting onto tiny structures It is not easy to dispense a 50 µm droplet exactly onto a target of similar size. A microscope camera on the print head helps: first target positions are identified (typically via alignment marks), then the X/Y position of the droplet is measured to correct even the smallest deviations. The pattern recognition works well for pure two-dimensional targets such as microelectrode pads or straight conducting paths, but also for nano-wells, microcantilevers, microfluidic channels and more. This software extension allows the unlimited definition of spot positions relative to alignment marks. On the right: microscope above a chip and example of a successfully detected microelectrode array. Software and programming The intuitive Nano-Plotter TM control software, NPC16, supports all configurations, but you don t have to care for this, as the system comes pre-configured. NPC16 features a scripting tool (Nano-Plotter Language) with arithmetic expressions, constructs like loops and branches, and full hardware access; so you can develop your own NPL programmes. But this is needed only in rare cases, as all necessary programmes are included, ready for use. Standard procedures Service routines exist for overnight standby with occasional washing to keep pipettes happy, a cleaning procedure for dirty pipettes, or semi-automatic adjustment of pipettes to the same droplet speed. Our standard spotting routines should address all your needs no matter how pipette head or targets are set up, require zero programming and feature extensive data logging for quality control, including saving of stroboscope pictures and determining droplet speeds before and after spotting. Transfer list: Programmes are not restricted to a certain order (as in the left panel). Indeed, sample wells can be assigned to arbitrary spot positions in one or more sub-arrays, with replicates. This is described in a transfer list text file, but you can use a graphical user interface and click source and target positions. But given the many options, typing is often easier than clicking. Sequential spotting: Drop on demand allows to spot only one sample at a time. Although slow, this flexible mode allows any array layout and adjustment of inter-tip positions. Spotting with automatic target finding via a microscope must also be done sequentially. Simultaneous spotting: This is the fastest method, as all tips fire at the same time. Spots are arranged in the pitch of the pipette tips (9 or 4.5 mm), so spots in between are spotted in subsequent cycles. The array position is again given by a (different) transfer list. Thanks to the our customers, our Transfer- Sim programme has matured to a Swiss Army Knife with countless options, e. g. elaborate wash procedures, sample uptake using only a subset of pipettes, spotting only on certain slides or sub-arrays, solvent delivery, spotting on the fly, varying pipetting parameters and much more. Multiple source plates, with or without manual exchange, are supported. Parallel spotting is also the only choice when spotting into MTP wells.

7 Examples from Research and Manufacturing Arrays for DNA, proteins and more GeSiM s piezo technology provides high spot homogeneity and allows different spot sizes simply by varying the number of drops per spot. Different samples can be spotted by adjusting pipetting parameters, mainly voltage. For higher viscosity, special tips ( HV-J ) and heatable tips are available. The spotting pitch depends on the surface. Hydrophobic substrates allow grid sizes down to 150 µm. Piezoelectric tips are perfect to process typical buffers such as 3x SSC, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or Tris, but also up to 40% glycerol. Spotting onto microstructured substrates is possible. Using piezoelectric, solenoid valve or displacement ( passive ) dispensing, nanolitre and microlitre volumes can be spotted onto e.g. conducting MALDI targets. Automatic centring is possible, if image processing is used (see above). Microarrays can be generated in three-dimensional objects, e. g. MTP well bottoms. 10 drops = 3 nl 2 mm 100 drops = 30 nl 0,1 mg/ml Oligo Spots on a membrane (2.5 nl, 0.4 mm pitch) and in a 96-well MTP at 0.3 mm pitch The Z-height sensor measures all target Z-positions for automatic adjustment of spotting heights Large-scale chip production Of course, the rather small Nano-Plotter TM is ideal for research and chip development, but this does not mean that it is incapable of high-volume chip production. The picture on the right shows a former production site for specially designed FDAcleared diagnostic chips of a company in Utah. Many companies in China also rely on the Nano-Plotter TM for bulk biochip production. Sensors Numerous labs all over the world use the Nano-Plotter TM for special operations such as the production of (bio)sensors, where (bio) molecules are spotted onto small electrodes, microcantilevers or similar. This requires very precise positioning that is aided by a microscope and automatic image processing (here an example from Scotland). The microscope can also be used in combination with other dispensing systems such as pin tools or a dispenser for adhesives.

8 GESIM Nano-Plotter TM 2018 Gesellschaft für Silizium-Mikrosysteme mbh Bautzner Landstraße Radeberg, Germany Tel Fax For more information (applications, systems, distributors etc.), please visit We are not licensed under any patents owned by Oxford Gene Technology Limited (OGT) or related companies and cannot pass any such licence to our customers. A licence under OGT s patents may be necessary to manufacture or use oligonucleotides arrays. GeSiM mbh Specifications subject to change without notice