ARTEL to Help Laboratories Get to Know Their Automated Liquid Handlers at LabAutomation 2009

At LabAutomation 2009 in Palm Springs, California, ARTEL will present tools for laboratories to better understand and optimize their automated liquid handlers. The company will launch an online liquid handling discussion forum to spur adoption of best practices and provide answers to pressing liquid handling questions. ARTEL will have Internet workstations set up in its booth (#451) to allow visitors to log-in to access information on liquid handling and discuss trends and technologies featured at the show. At LabAuto, ARTEL will also showcase methods to improve efficiency and data quality in automated liquid handling.

“The fundamentals of effective liquid handling quality assurance are knowledge of best practices, an understanding of error sources, and performance measurement tools, and ARTEL’s mission is to help laboratories with each of these aspects,” said Kirby Pilcher, President, ARTEL. “At LabAuto, we will demonstrate how laboratories can get to know their automated liquid handlers inside and out using a combination of value-added information and technology.”

With the launch of an interactive, information-rich website focused on liquid handling, ARTEL aims to build a community for liquid handling equipment users to foster best practices and advance the science. Discussion boards will highlight topics such as data management, automated liquid handling, and regulatory news. The forum will go live on the first day of LabAuto, when ARTEL will announce the website’s URL.

Also at the show, ARTEL will discuss how specific variables affect automated liquid handler performance. Topics to be highlighted include the importance of accuracy information versus precision information alone, the selection of optimal pipette tips for various instruments and applications, the need to verify each tip of an automated liquid handler, and handling non-aqueous solutions, such as DMSO and glycerol.

ARTEL will also showcase its objective measurement tool, the MVS® Multichannel Verification System, which provides measurement data to support the performance of automated liquid handlers. The MVS will be running live in ARTEL’s booth with instruments from Beckman Coulter, Tecan, and Velocity11.

“The MVS essentially provides a window into how automated liquid handlers perform in various situations, such as when manipulating method parameters, and the performance data are of critical importance for quality assurance and efficiency,” said Keith Albert, Ph.D., Technical Marketing Manager, ARTEL.

The ARTEL MVS is the only system that provides information on the accuracy and precision of volumes transferred by each channel of an automated liquid handler in one rapid experiment. The ARTEL MVS will be featured in the Liquid Handling Boot Camp at Lab Automation, run by Doug Gurevitch, Executive Editor of JALA.