Tecan, a leading player in the Life Sciences supply industry, is co-operating with Corning Incorporated to offer an innovative automation solution for plate sealing, unsealing and resealing. The system combines Corning's Robolid, a novel microplate seal, with Tecan's Te-Lidder, a new accessory for robotic workstations. Together, Robolid and Te-Lidder products provide an ideal system for assays requiring both automation and low liquid volumes.

One of the key bottlenecks in performing many types of assay is the ability to effectively use small volumes (low ml or nl) for various assay and molecular biology applications. While it is possible to dispense small liquid volumes, the ability to work with low volumes has been severely limited due to rapid evaporation, especially at the higher temperatures required for many types of assays. Tecan and Corning Life Sciences have put together an innovative, new microplate handling system for these applications. The combination of Tecan's Te-Lidder microplate lid handling module and the Corning Robolid technology, provides an ideal solution for sealing, unsealing, and re-sealing a variety of commonly used 96- and 384-well microplates.

The Corning Robolid is a novel microplate seal that incorporates a silicone capmat into a standard polystyrene plate lid. This combination provides a liquid tight seal to each individual well on a standard plate in a format that is automation compatible. Tecan's Te-Lidder is a compact robotic workstation accessory specifically designed for utilizing the Robolid technology on Tecan Workstations and TRAC Robotic Systems. This patented technology is designed for easy and quick removal of tight sealing Robolids from a wide variety of 96- and 384-well plates. The Te-Lidder is controlled through standard Tecan software packages.

Marc Feiglin, Chief Technology Officer Drug Discovery at Tecan, remarked: "The combination of the Te-Lidder and Robolid technologies represents a significant advance in microplate capabilities. It's now possible to easily handle the performance of both low volume assays and compound logistics applications with a simple, yet elegant, automated solution." 

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Product information:

Tecan Group Ltd.
Cornelia Kegele
Manager Marketing Communications and Branding
Tel.: +41 (0)44 922 81 11
Fax: +41 (0)44 922 82 81
e-mail: cornelia.kegele@tecan.com
Internet: www.tecan.com

Editorial contact:

Northbank Communications
Stefan Platz
Account Manager
Tel.: +49 (0)89 1895 7057
e-mail: s.platz@northbankcommunications.com