Kong Fanwei, Yuan Liang, Zheng Yuan F, Chen Weidong
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.
J Lab Autom. 2012 Jun;17(3):169-85. doi: 10.1177/2211068211435302. Epub 2012 Feb 6.
Liquid handling plays a pivotal role in life science laboratories. In experiments such as gene sequencing, protein crystallization, antibody testing, and drug screening, liquid biosamples frequently must be transferred between containers of varying sizes and/or dispensed onto substrates of varying types. The sample volumes are usually small, at the micro- or nanoliter level, and the number of transferred samples can be huge when investigating large-scope combinatorial conditions. Under these conditions, liquid handling by hand is tedious, time-consuming, and impractical. Consequently, there is a strong demand for automated liquid-handling methods such as sensor-integrated robotic systems. In this article, we survey the current state of the art in automatic liquid handling, including technologies developed by both industry and research institutions. We focus on methods for dealing with small volumes at high throughput and point out challenges for future advancements.
液体处理在生命科学实验室中起着关键作用。在诸如基因测序、蛋白质结晶、抗体检测和药物筛选等实验中，液体生物样品经常需要在不同大小的容器之间转移和/或分配到不同类型的基质上。样品体积通常很小，处于微升或纳升水平，并且在研究大规模组合条件时，转移的样品数量可能非常大。在这些条件下，手工进行液体处理既繁琐又耗时，而且不切实际。因此，对诸如集成传感器的机器人系统等自动化液体处理方法有强烈需求。在本文中，我们综述了自动液体处理的当前技术水平，包括行业和研究机构开发的技术。我们专注于高通量处理小体积样品的方法，并指出未来发展面临的挑战。
