Applications

The physical and chemical composition of biological samples is more diverse than the libraries of medicinal compounds used for drug discovery research. Types of samples include proteins, nucleic acids, blood and serum samples, cell suspensions, tissue biopsies, and antibodies. Thus any storage system must be flexible to accommodate the differing storage requirements of each sample type base upon its biochemical composition, stability and where appropriate, solvent.

TTP LabTech's comPOUND fulfils the demands of chemical and biological libraries by offering a self-contained, adaptable microtube store with a hermetically-sealed, inert environment which can be set to a user-defined temperature. comPOUND stores have been used to store a range of samples including: DNA, TaqMan® primers-probe sets, antibodies and chemical libraries.  In each case comPOUND can be configured to store samples at the appropriate temperature ranging from -20°C to +20°C.

Samples are cherry-picked using pneumatic technology and can be retrieved according to user-specified plate formats – for Taqman screening primers can be delivered in a pre-selected format allowing "dialed up" sets to go straight onto robots in 96-well format for immediate use.   A 2D bar code on each tube is read on the way into and out of the store making it impossible to retrieve the wrong sample.

Laboratories are increasingly automating biological sample supply and storage, but combining automated storage and liquid handling platforms typically requires complex integration of systems from multiple vendors. comPOUND offers a range of solutions from manual front of store retrieval through to remote delivery and walk away overnight processing.