PerkinElmer Life Sciences Launches Two New Products For Sample Preparation And Liquid Handling

PerkinElmer Life Sciences, a leading provider of drug discovery, life science research and clinical screening technologies and services, today announced two new products for sample preparation and liquid handling. The Evolution? P3 precision pipetting platform is a new, benchtop system for dispensing into 96-, 384-, and 1536-well microplates. The FlexDrop? precision reagent dispenser is a standalone platform for assay development. Both products were showcased recently at the Lab Automation 2002 conference in Palm Springs, CA.

The Evolution P3 precision pipetting platform is based on the patented MultiPosition Dispense (MPD) module developed for the Packard-brand PlateTrak and MiniTrak Systems. Evolution P3 provides high-throughput automation for a wide range of applications, including compound plate reformatting and replication, cell-based and ELISA assays, reagent additions, PCR setup, and more. The MPD enables accurate 96- and 384-channel pipetting into 96- to 1536-well SBS standard shallow and deepwell microplates, and includes options for an integrated gripper and 96- to 1536-channel Pintools.

Designed with a small footprint, the Evolution P3 includes a 16-position deck to hold a variety of labware including chillers, reagent bottles, tip wash cartridges and automatic tip loading. The system can be integrated with up to four Packard-brand PlateStak automated microplate handlers. Each PlateStak can hold up to 100 microplates and 24 RoboRack tip boxes for unattended feeding of tips and microplates.

"With the introduction of these latest products, we've broadened and strengthened our liquid handling system offerings to provide the most complete line of sample preparation systems in the drug discovery industry," said Dan Roark, vice president, liquid handling systems, PerkinElmer Life Sciences. "The Evolution P3 is the industry's most versatile benchtop system with an integrated gripper and ability to access both an expanded labware deck and integrated external devices. The FlexDrop reagent dispenser offers precise small volume dispensing into the industry's widest range of microplate formats with C.V.'s as low as 5 percent."

Evolution P3 is controlled by PerkinElmer's Packard-brand WinPREP® software automation software. WinPREP is highly flexible drag-and-drop software with pre-programmed procedure templates and labware libraries. WinPREP is now standard on MultiPROBE® II, MiniTrak?, ImageTrak? and now Evolution P3 systems.

The FlexDrop precision reagent dispenser provides the industry's broadest range of standalone dispensing capability. The system can dispense up to four reagents into 96- to 1536-well SBS standard shallow or deepwell microplates with a dynamic dispense range of 500nL to 2.5mL and above for plate preparation, assay development and compound archiving.

Up to 99 pre-programmed dispense protocols can be stored in the system. FlexDrop is automation friendly and easily integrates with the Packard-brand MultiPROBE II sample processor. The FlexDrop platform will include several models to handle a varying number of reagents and volumes.

Quelle: PerkinElmer Instruments