Since its formation in 1988, The Automation Partnership (TAP) has pioneered the development and implementation of industrial automation solutions to the world's leading pharmaceutical, agrochemical, biotechnology and genomics companies.
Headquartered in Royston, England, TAP today includes major names such as AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Wyeth among its list of customers and partners.
One of TAP's latest challenges has been to meet the challenge of producing, on demand, high-quality consistent cells for use in drug discovery. The result is the new SelecT machine.
Based on recommendations from a consortium of six major pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline, Merck,
Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca and Parke-Davies TAP contacted
Watson-Marlow Bredel to supply peristaltic pumps for SelecT that would provide a high performance metering solution while at the same time being easy clean.
Typically measuring around 2mx2mx3m, the SelecT provides a completely controlled class 100 hepa-filtered environment for totally sterile cell culture growth. This allows pharmaceutical companies to grow and harvest cell lines overnight or at weekends, without the need for supervision enabling screening five days a week.
The heart of the system relies on up to 15 Watson-Marlow 314D peristaltic pump heads vertically mounted on the machine's external front face, metering process fluids such as cell culture media or PBS rinse solution (Fig.1). Using silicone tubing linked to a rack or refrigerator containing the fluids, liquid is transferred into the sealed unit of the SelecT for metering onto cells.
It also employs two Watson Marlow's 313FAC pumps externally mounted alongside the 314D pump heads. These transfer the fluid required for the washing and priming station, used to clean the cell pooling and dispensing pot. From here the cells are dispensed into multiwell plates.
David Jervis, applications manager at TAP, said: "Unlike manual cell cultivation methods, the SelecT allows entire automation of the process, resulting in increased consistency and individual cell traceability. With this in mind, we turned to Watson-Marlow Bredel for a peristaltic pumping solution.“
The growth and harvesting process begins by placing flasks of cells into an incubator within the unit that are then fed with cell culture media. After the culture media surrounding the cells no longer contains any food, the fluid is pumped out of the unit to be safely disposed of. During this period the cells will have grown considerably and will be ready for splitting into multiple batches. Once these are fully confluent (a term used to describe the entire base of the plate being covered with a single layer of cells) they are all harvested, pooled together and robotically put into the cell counter, ready for the final stages of growth.
The 313FAC and 314D peristaltic pumps are both specially designed for 24-hour operation. The 313FAC has flow rates at 50Hz up to 1350ml/min at 270rpm. The 314D has four rollers for minimum pulsation and accepts seven tube sizes without the need to for adjustment.
Immunoassay testing
Another English company, Mikura, recently had a similar pumping challenge. The company also designs and manufactures laboratory equipment.
When specifying pumpheads for new mircroplate instrumentation products, the company identified that it was critical to achieve accurate fluid transfer from an application that would be easy to clean and maintain.
Recognising Watson-Marlow Bredel's expertise in this area, the team selected a range of 400 series OEM peristaltic pumps, designed specifically with clinical, diagnostic, scientific and medical applications in mind.
Since launching the company in 1997, Mikura has developed a wide range of microplate instrumentation products for washing and filling applications in the immunoassay-testing field.
Immunoassay testing is a laboratory technique used for scientific research and testing for diseases including HIV and Rubella. The Autura1000 and 500 automated microplate washing and filling machines from Mikura rely on Watson-Marlow Bredel's peristaltic pumps to perform the primary functions of filling and cleaning test tubes.
The Autura500 Microplate Filler uses two eight channel 400 series peristaltic pumpheads mounted on the exterior. The pumps transfer small amounts of fluid from bottles via silicone tubing, into the top of the filler head where all the tubes are held in the correct array for dispensing into test plate.
The Autura1000 Microplate Washer washes out any unbound antibodies and reagents using three bespoke designed 400 series pumpheads with two channels. Using specially designed coaxial tubing and Watson-Marlow Bredel's peristaltic pump technology, the wash buffer can be simultaneously dispensed and aspirated through the one washer head.
Low to medium flow fluid metering is an important function of Mikura's microplate instrumentation products. Andy Cain, director of Mikura, describes how critical accuracy is: "Immunoassay testing involves extensive amounts of small quantities of fluid transfers of wash buffers, and reagents. Applying exact amounts of each component is essential to achieve the correct positive or negative readings from test samples.“
The microplates, which each contain 96 or 384 test wells filled with different test samples, enter the process with the addition of an antibody. Left to incubate for 1560minutes, the process proceeds by washing out each test well using the Autura1000, cleaning out any antibodies unattached to blood cells.
Each antibody has a unique molecular shape allowing it to attach itself onto the surface of any antigen present (foreign substance or disease). Antibodies remaining in the test well indicate that that the blood sample does not have any of the disease present. Those antibodies connected to blood cells remain in the test well where a reagent is added using the Autura 500 filling unit, it then proceeds through the second phase of incubating and washing. Finally, another reagent is added, and the blood starts to form a colour this determines whether or not the sample is positive or negative.
