Our Equpiment

Biomek FX

The Beckman Coulter Biomek FX is a highly versatile dual head liquid handling robot. A 16 space deck combined with a Cytomat hotel station allows processing of up to 200 plates without manual intervention. The dual head setup of the FX includes a 96 pin head to allow rapid processing of 96 and 384 well plates.

The second Span-8 head allows rapid cherry picking of hit lists and or bespoke library formation. The Biomek FX is situated within a BigNeat sterile flow cabinet to maintain experimental integrity.

S&P Robotics BM3

The BM3 colony pinning robot manufactured by S&P robotics is a high capacity standalone machine capable of manipulating up to 1536 colonies on an agar plate. The BM3 can easily switch between 96, 384, 768 and 1536 colony formats.

The BM3 can also cherry pick single plates from a library for more bespoke experimental work. With metal pin tools that are sterilsed using ethaonl wash steps and a plate capacity of 192 the BM3 is our microorganism screening workhorse.

Tecan Freedom Evo

Freedom EVO is a bench top liquid handling robot made by TECAN. The Span 8 head allows a range of samples to be processed from single microfuge tubes to 384 well plates. This highly versatile robot can be utilised for many applications including PCR setup and cleanup and library cherry picking.

Singer ROTOR HDA

This easy-to-use, compact bench-top robot is designed for the rapid picking and re-plating of microorganism colonies at densities 96, 384, 1536 and 6144.

The disposable nature of the ROTOR pintool system is particularly useful when manipulating cultures and colonies of organisms such as Bacillus subtilis that are difficult to destroy or for class II organsims such as Candida albicans. The ROTOR HDA can also transfer cells from liquid to agar and vice versa.

Singer Serial Filler

The Serial Filler is a compact, versatile and efficient media dispensing instrument that accepts a wide range of Petri dishes and SBS-format plates.

Equipped with a UV lamp and multiple HEPA cabinet and venting filters, the Serial Filler produces superior quality agar plates of consistent volume in a sterile enclosure, which greatly reduces any threat of contamination

QuantStudio 7Flex Real-Time PCR System

With both 96- and 384-well capacity, it enables us to run a broad range of real-time PCR-based applications through its multiplexing capabilities and interchangeable blocks.

• Improved well-to-well and instrument-to-instrument data accuracy is achieved with the OptiFlex™ system, which features 6 decoupled excitation and emission filter channels with 21 filter combinations for maximum multiplexing and chemistry flexibility.
• Detect changes in target quantity as small as 1.5-fold in single-plex reactions and obtain 10 logs of linear dynamic range.
• Compatible with over 8 million TaqMan® assays for gene expression, genetic variation, gene regulation, or protein expression experiments.

EpMotion Liquid Handling Robot

Our epMotion 5075LH system has a high application flexibility:

• 15 worktable positions
• 2 thermal modules
• 8-channel pipette tools from 0.5ml to 1ml
• 4 positions for exchangeable pipetting tools
• single channel tool for 3-50ul

FLUOstar Omega Microplate Reader

This multi-mode microplate reader with six detection modes and 384-well capacity enables us to perform a large variety of measurements. For UV/VIS absorbance assays it is equipped with a spectrometer-based detection that can measure from 220 to 1000 nm at resolutions from 1 to 10 nm. Alternatively, up to eight wavelengths can be measured simultaneously in a single pass.

In fluorescence and luminescence modes, the fast filter switching allows the use of multi-excitation and multi-emission applications, such as FRET, BRET, FURA2 and other ratiometric methods. Its luminescence detection system works with both flash and glow based assays. It is equippped with an Atmospheric Control Unit that allows live cell-based applications, from standard cell growth to hypoxic assays or pH control as both O2 and CO2 gas levels within the microplate reader chamber can be fully and independently regulated.

Gel Doc XR System

For the imaging and analysis of nucleic acid and protein polyacrylamide or agarose gels as well as blots, the system CCD high-resolution, high-sensitivity camera accommodates the detection of fluorescence and colorimetric signals in the context of PCR, nucleid acid purification, documentation of restriction digests, amplified nucleic acids, genetic fingerprinting, RFLPs, and protein purification and characterization.

Cell/Tissue Culture Room

Across the corridor from our main lab we have a fully equipped cell culture room, with Class 2 biosafety cabinet, humid CO­2 incubator, water bath, swing rotor centrifuge, fridge freezer, inverted microscope and aspiration pump.

This allows for a streamlined workflow, which is especially important for the processing of blood samples for flow cytometry and cell culture.