omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening
omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening
omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening
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TP007<br />
Christopher Bernard<br />
Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co.<br />
Discovery Technologies<br />
5 Research Parkway<br />
Walling<strong>for</strong>d, Connecticut 06492<br />
chris.bernard@bms.com<br />
149<br />
Co-Author(s)<br />
Moneesh Chatterjee, Andrew Bullen, James Myslik,<br />
William Monahan, Jeffrey Guss, Christian Strom,<br />
Jay Stevenson, Alastair Binnie<br />
A Microtube Rack Decapper/Sorter <strong>for</strong> use in the Automated Preparation of Compounds <strong>for</strong><br />
High Throughput <strong>Screening</strong><br />
A key requirement <strong>for</strong> using large compound collections in High Throughput <strong>Screening</strong> (HTS) is making<br />
compounds available in <strong>for</strong>mats appropriate <strong>for</strong> screening. In most instances, part of the <strong>for</strong>matting process is<br />
dependent on converting compounds from a 96-well microtube <strong>for</strong>mat to more densely packed plate <strong>for</strong>mats<br />
(i.e., 384-well or 1536-well). The first step after retrieval from the compound collection is to remove caps from<br />
individually sealed microtubes, <strong>and</strong> sort the microtube racks into specific groupings. Typically, the process of<br />
decapping <strong>and</strong> sorting is a manual procedure with inherent ergonomic stress, that also introduces the potential <strong>for</strong><br />
racks to be grouped incorrectly. The lack of a commercially available system that was cost-effective <strong>and</strong> capable<br />
of automatically removing EVA caps from Micronic microtubes led us to create a custom system <strong>for</strong> decapping<br />
microtube racks. To address rack h<strong>and</strong>ling <strong>and</strong> sorting, a custom-made decapping device was integrated with<br />
commercially available stackers (VStack, Velocity11), a r<strong>and</strong>om access carousel (CRS), <strong>and</strong> a Vertical Array Loader<br />
(CRS) into a linear rail-based system. The overall system is run by a custom instrument control <strong>and</strong> scheduling<br />
application developed in LabVIEW (National Instruments). Additionally, sophisticated error trapping <strong>and</strong> inspection<br />
capabilities are included in this system to further enhance overall process reliability <strong>and</strong> to aid in recovery from<br />
system errors. The implementation of this custom system to decap <strong>and</strong> sort microtube racks in an automated<br />
production environment will be presented.<br />
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