Tecan’s Air LiHa Streamlines Forensic DNA Quantitation and Amplification at the Orange County Crime Laboratory, California, USA

26 Nov 2013
Sarah Thomas
Associate Editor

Product news

The DNA Section of the Orange County Crime Laboratory (OCCL) in California, USA, has recently taken delivery of its first Air LiHa equipped Freedom EVO® workstation for DNA quantitation and amplification reaction set-up. Complementing the laboratory’s existing liquid displacement Freedom EVO platforms for DNA extraction, this new instrument will help to streamline the workflow and improve pipetting precision.


Robert Binz, a Forensic Scientist at OCCL, explained: “We purchased our first Freedom EVO in 2010 to speed up DNA extraction. We originally chose the HID EVOlution™ because it was already optimized and validated for use with the Applied Biosystems PrepFiler® Forensic DNA Extraction Kit (Life Technologies), and it was so successful that we purchased a second platform within a year.”

“More recently, we began looking to acquire a new system for the quantitation, normalization and amplification steps of our workflow. As we do not use the Applied Biosystems Quantifiler® Duo chemistry for quantitation, the HID EVOlution package was not an option. We decided that an air displacement liquid handling system was the best fit for our needs, making a Freedom EVO workstation equipped with an Air LiHa the obvious choice. Although we are only in the validation phase at the moment, the pipetting precision of the Air LiHa is very good. For 1 μl transfers we are achieving CVs of 1-5 %, dropping to 1¬3 % when the volume is increased to 10 μl, which we are extremely happy with.”

Air LiHa - Air Displacement Pipetting Arm

Tecan

Increased flexibility and greater convenience with Tecan’s Air LiHa The Air LiHa air displacement pipetting arm offers increased productivity and lower maintenance for a variety of applications requiring disposable tips. Using air displacement technology to offer a broad volume range from 0.5 to 1000 μl per channel – with free dispense down to 0.5 μl – it can be mounted onto Freedom EVO® 100, 150 or 200 platforms, and freely combined with other pipetting and robotic arms for true parallel processing. Available with either four or eight individual pipetting channels – each protected by an Inline Filter, which can be easily exchanged by the user – the Air LiHa enables sample transfers to and from most standard labware types. Liquid handling expertise Each Air LiHa module offers optimized pipetting for a broad range of liquid types and volumes, with independent movement of each pipetting channel in the Z-axis and symmetrically variable tip spacing from 9 to 38 mm to maximize flexibility. This is combined with fast liquid level detection and preferential non-contact dispensing for improved pipetting performance for a wide range of applications, such as nucleic acid purification and PCR set­up. Advanced process security With built-in MultiSense™ process security and liquid level detection functionalities, the Air LiHa supports both capacitive liquid level detection (cLLD) and pressure-based liquid level detection (pLLD), as well as offering Pressure Monitored Pipetting (PMP™) for real-time quality control of all liquid transfer processes. This sophisticated process control suite allows fully automated detection of common sources of pipetting errors – such as clots or aspiration of air – and provides predefined liquid classes for both serum and aqueous reagents, ensuring reliable pipetting performance for a broad range of applications. Versatile disposable tips The Air LiHa is designed to work exclusively with disposable tips, and is intended for applications where the washing of fixed tips between pipetting steps is ineffective or impractical. It is compatible with Tecan’s entire range of high quality LiHa disposable tips, offering a wide selection of tip volumes, purity levels and filtered options to suit the specific needs of a given application and ensure optimal pipetting results. A low level tip ejector allows disposable tips to be ejected within an enclosed environment, avoiding the risk of cross-contamination from aerosols generated during the tip ejection process.

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Freedom EVOlution™

Tecan

The Freedom EVOlution Software enables an easy set up of sophisticated pipetting procedures for pre-analytical sample distribution, assay preparation and fully automated ELISA that are processed on the Freedom EVO® Clinical and Freedom EVOlyzer® workstations – our IVD-D and QSR compliant platforms.

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DNA / RNA Extraction and PurificationPurified DNA and RNA are required for numerous downstream molecular biology applications. Consequently, the importance of high-quality DNA/RNA extraction and purification equipment cannot be underestimated. Many purification kits are available and are typically optimized for nucleic acid type and source, including plasmid DNA, genomic DNA, mRNA, RNA and viral nucleic acid purification kits. Automated extraction and purification of nucleic acids can be implemented with magnetic bead separator instruments or high-throughput purification workstations. Find the best DNA/RNA extraction and purification equipment in our peer-reviewed product directory: compare products, check customer reviews and receive pricing direct from manufacturers.Automated Liquid HandlingAutomated liquid handling equipment is used to mix, dilute and dispense allotted volumes of liquid into microplates and other vessels automatically. The robotic, liquid handling arms can dispense from single channel to 3456 multichannel as well as operate nanoliter dispensing, enabling high throughput of samples. Find the best automated liquid handlers in our peer-reviewed product directory: compare products, check customer reviews and receive pricing direct from manufacturers.DNA / RNA QuantificationDetection and quantification of nucleic acids is important in molecular biology, cloning, expression, forensics and clinical diagnostics. Nucleic acids can be detected by labeling with colorimetric, fluorescent or radio labels and using in situ hybridization kits to identify specific sequences. Multiple nucleic acids can be detected and quantified at once using RNA / DNA detection beads or RNA / DNA microarrays. Find the best DNA / RNA Quantification products in our peer-reviewed product directory: compare products, check customer reviews and receive pricing direct from manufacturers.Liquid Handling WorkstationLiquid handling workstations automate the process of sample preparation, improving accuracy and efficiency. These systems are essential for high-throughput applications in biological, chemical, and pharmaceutical research, reducing human error and increasing reproducibility. Workstations come equipped with robotic arms, pipetting tools, and other accessories to streamline lab workflows. Explore liquid handling workstations in our peer-reviewed product directory; compare products, check reviews, and get pricing directly from manufacturers.DNA AmplificationDNA Amplification is a technique used to amplify a single or multiple copies of DNA or mRNA by orders of magnitude. The most common method employed is PCR, but other options exist that eliminate the need for thermocycling.