omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

TP039
Patrick Goertz
University of Texas at Austin
Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology
1 University Station A4800
Austin, Texas 78712-0159
goertz.p@mail.utexas.edu
Automated Selection of Aminoglycoside Antibiotic Aptamers
165
Co-Author(s)
J. Colin Cox
Andrew D. Ellington
The in vitro selection of aptamers that bind to low molecular weight targets is commonly a tedious, timeconsuming
project. Aptamers are short (~80 nt) segments of nucleic acid that have been shown to mimic many
properties of antibodies and which bind with high specificity and affinity to molecular targets. The process of
selecting aptamers includes several rounds of combining the target with a randomized pool of nucleic acid,
washing away the non-binding species, and amplifying the bound members. Subsequent iterations of this process
narrow down the nucleic acid pool to the strongest binding species. We have expanded current automated
selection protocols to include aptamer selections against small molecules including the aminoglycoside antibiotic
neomycin. This modified procedure decreases both the frequency of manual handling of the selection reagents
and the time required to perform the experiment generating aptamers against the chosen target at a much greater
rate. The method is suitable for integration with high throughput technologies, greatly expanding the possibility
of discovering useful aptamers against other low weight targets. Such targets could include those with important
diagnostic value such as neurotransmitters.
TP040
Norbert Gottschlich
Greiner Bio-One, Inc.
Maybachstrasse 2
Frickenhausen72636 Germany
norbert.gottschlich@gbo.com
Mass Production of Plastic Chips for Microfluidic Applications
Co-Author(s)
A. Gerlach, G. Knebel,
W. Hoffmann, A. E. Guber,
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe,
Institut für Mikrostrukturtechnik
Germany
Commonly, microfluidic chips for medical diagnostics or life sciences are made from glass or silicon. Over the last
years, however, polymers have gained great interest as substrates since they promise lower manufacturing costs.
In addition, polymers are available with a wide range of excellent physical and chemical properties. For a low-cost
production of microfluidic systems as single-use products, adequate manufacturing techniques are required. We
have produced several microfluidic systems from various plastic materials, mainly for Capillary Electrophoresis
(CE). The microchannel systems were either molded into the plastic substrate by vacuum hot embossing or
produced by optimized injection molding. Routinely, mechanical micromachining was used to create the required
metal molding tools. Extremely precise mold inserts could be generated by galvanic/lithographic processes.
The CE chips have been used to separate both DNA fragments and mixtures of inorganic ions. Detection was
carried out either by laser induced fluorescence (LIF) or by electrical methods. In the latter case, contact-free
conductivity detection with electrodes located outside of the CE system was used. Microstructures have also been
incorporated in a larger format that meets the standardized microplate footprint commonly used in high throughput
screening (HTS). Microfluidic plates with 96 or 384 identical microstructures for applications in HTS, clinical
diagnostics, and gene analysis have been manufactured as well.
POSTER ABSTRACTS