omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

WP013
Günther Knebel
Greiner Bio-One, Inc.
R & D
Maybachstrasse 2
Frickenhausen72636 Germany
Ulrike.Honisch@gbo.com
Low Birefringence Plates for Crystal Scoring Under Polarized Light
198
Co-Author(s)
Ulrike Honisch
In the post-genomic era structure determination by X-ray diffraction becomes more and more important in the
context of structural genomics and structure-based drug design. Protein crystallization is still a major bottleneck in
structure determination and automation in this area is proceeding constantly. Whereas the setup of high throughput
screens for the identification of proper crystallization conditions has been subject to automation for some time,
automated image acquisition, data analysis and crystal scoring are relatively recent projects. A powerful tool for the
identification of crystals is illumination under polarized light. On the basis of its birefringent properties crystalline
material can easily be distinguished from amorphous precipitate. The major obstacle in utilizing birefringence has
been the birefringent background of the plastic materials used for crystallization devices. This presentation will
address the current drawbacks in imaging systems with polarized light options, and salvages due to unique resins
in combination with a sophisticated manufacturing process. The performance of these new non-birefringent plates
will be shown in sitting drop and crystallization under oil applications.
WP014
David Humphries
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Engineering
One Cyclotron Road, Mail Stop 25A-119
Berkeley, California 94720
DEHumphries@lbl.gov
New High Performance Magnetic Separation Technology for Laboratory and
Industrial Applications
Co-Author(s)
Martin Pollard
Chris Elkin
New high performance hybrid magnetic separation technology has been developed at the D.O.E. Joint Genome
Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for general laboratory and high throughput automated
applications. This technology has broad applicability for molecular separation in the areas of genomic automation,
high throughput screening, and proteomics among others. Its applicability ranges from large and small scale
microtiter plate processes and flow separation processes to single molecule DNA manipulation. It is currently
an enabling purification technology for very high throughput production sequencing at the D.O.E. Joint Genome
Institute. This technology incorporates hybrid magnetic structures that combine linear permanent magnet material
and ferromagnetic material to produce significantly higher fields and gradients than those of currently available
commercial devices. These structures incorporate ferromagnetic poles that can be easily shaped to produce
complex field distributions for specialized applications. The higher maximum fields and strong gradients of the
hybrid structures result in greater holding forces on magnetized targets that are being processed as well as faster
extraction. Current development versions of these magnet plates have exhibited fields in excess of 9000.0 gauss
and gradients approaching 1000.0 tesla/meter. The design of these structures is easily scalable to allow for field
increases to significantly above 1.0 tesla (10000.0 gauss). This technology is currently being made available to
industry through the Tech Transfer Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.