Automating high-throughput fluid sample handling for biotechnology and chemistry

Over the past 3 years, the Genomation Laboratory at the University of Washington has been developing ACAPELLA, an automated submicroliter fluid sample handling system. This general-purpose, chemistry analysis system has applications to DNA sequencing, diagnostics, forensics, protein crystallography, and so on. In the first phase of prototype development, the ACAPELLA-1K system was designed to process 1,000 samples in 8 hours. After extensive tests and subsystem modifications, this system has successfully demonstrated high-throughput preparation of restriction enzyme digests, polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), and sequencing reactions for genome analysis. The lessons learned in this prototype development and testing phase have been used to design the next generation ACAPELLA-5K system that processes 5,000 samples in 8 hours and has more functionality. The prototype design, development, and evolution into the ACAPELLA-5K system will be described and the ACAPELLA-5K system will be presented. Various aspects that had to be considered were the architecture (e.g. parallel vs. serial; radial vs. linear), mechanical design, electronics, sensors, novel actuators, thermal processing, detection, sample tracking, error handling, user-interface, and bio-compatibility.