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Introduction
Many laboratory protocols require the serial
dilution of reagents or compounds. IC50 assays
are commonly used to evaluate drug efficacy, and
assay development procedures as well as standard
curve generation involve the serial dilution
of proteins, compounds, or other detection
agents. These processes can be streamlined with
automated liquid handling equipment with serial
dilution capabilities.
Velocity11s Bravo Liquid Handling Platform can be utilized to perform serial dilutions. It has nine standard deck positions that can hold any SBSstandard microplate. These deck positions can also be configured for heating, cooling, shaking, and tip washing. The design of the head, along with various tip and head options, allow serial dilutions to be performed by column or row, from 300 nL to 200 μL dilutions.
Operators can easily write protocols with the included VWorks4 software package. One key feature is the Serial Dilution Wizard. The Serial Dilution Wizard lets the operator easily program the instrument for making serial dilutions. The wizard walks the operator through the steps of a serial dilution task: tip changes, mix parameters, and volume transfers. The operator can either determine the transfer based on initial volumes (transfer by volume) or by a concentration gradient (transfer by concentration).
This technical note explores the parameters that
lead to an efficient, precise, and accurate serial
dilution protocol. The goal was to produce good
precision and accuracy for each dilution in the least
amount of time. The mix parameters are essential
for a robust serial dilution task. The parameters
explored include:
The Number of mix cycles
Mix height
Liquid class settings
Tip retraction/extension
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