Press ESC to exit full screen
Request More Information
Key Features
Consolidate clones from different plates into one plate by cherry-picking.
Picked colonies can be arrayed onto
filters or agar for hybridization screening. Up to 6 filters, with up to 57,600 spots per filter, are supported, allowing users to a cost-effective and robust way to screen libraries.
The replicating function in the QPix system creates duplicates
and sub-libraries of colonies, allowing researchers to have a working microbe plate for assays and another plate for sample banks.
Three types of plate replications are possible:
- Identifical replicates (96- to 96-well, 384- to 384-well plates)
- Compression (4 x 96-well plates into 1 x 384-well plates)
- Expansion (1 x 384-well plate into 4 x 96-well plates)
The QPix system can pick 3,000 colonies per hour accurately, eliminating common errors associated with manual processes such as double picks or misses.
Additionally, sensors in the system automatically detect agar height, helping high precision robotics to pick single colonies gently while achieving >98% efficiency.
The QPix system supports fluorescent and colorimetric detection, allowing scientists to identify and isolate colonies that display the desired phenotype or biological function. The system can pick only those colonies of interest, thus saving time and money.
The QPix system can plate and streak 96 samples in approximately 30 minutes, which is a significant improvement in throughput when compared to the manual process.
Download app note: Synthetic metagenomics
How QPix can help
A typical project starts from sampling of microorganisms within a given environment in order to discover as many species as possible for further investigation downstream. Some experts suggest there are more unknown microbes on Earth than stars in the universe. Thus, there are usually a large and diverse set of microbial colonies that benefit greatly from the flexibility and throughput of the Qpix system.
An emerging field that involves the study of all genetic materials originating from a specific environment (e.g. gut) rather than the traditional approach of studying a known specific organism within that environment.
Metagenomics
View on-demand webinar:
Explore methods for more efficient molecular cloning and strain engineering applications
How QPix can help
The engineering of metabolic pathways to produce consistent, predictable protein product often requires the manipulation of multiple pathways and several components within each pathway. This multifactorial approach requires the screening of a diverse library of mutants to find the rare clone with the desired characteristics. Automating this process is critical to ensuring consistency as well as meeting throughput needs.
A broad term referring to the manipulation of metabolic pathways to coax microbes to manufacture proteins in a highly predictable manner through the use of engineering principles. Sometimes individual genes are modified and sometimes entire genomes are edited for desired characteristics.
Synthetic biology
Explore how University of Edinburgh uses QPix colony pickers to scale up DNA manufacturing
How QPix can help
Assembling the genes can be challenging becuse they are often very large (thousands of base pairs in size). Currently, most techniques can only synthesize strands of DNA up to hundreds of base pairs. Thus, in order to assemble the gene of interest, thousands of shorter strands must be joined together to form the larger gene of interest. Prior to gene assembly, the shorter strands of DNA are introduced into bacteria, which must be picked subsequently and prepped for gene assembly. The QPix system can help speed up this process.
A term referring to the aligning and merging pieces of DNA. Researchers interested in designing genes from the ground up often use computer alogirthms and the known properties of existing sequences to predict the behavior of their designer genes.
DNA assembly
Download PDF
How QPix can help
A typical phage library contains about 10^9-10^11 variants individually expressed in E. coli, thus posing a substantial bottleneck when screening for the right candidates. The QPix system can pick up to 3,000 clones/hr, increasing speed, throughput and walk-away time.
A method whereby a large library of antibodies is encoded into the DNA of a virus (creating a phage library) in such a way that the antibody is displayed on the coat of the virus. The phage library is used to infect bacterial hosts where the virus can then replicate. Individual colonies infected with the virus are then picked and deposited into a microtiter plate that has been coated with the antigen of interest. The plate is then washed so that only phages displaying an antibody specific to the antigen can remain attached.
Phage display
Meta-genomics
Synthetic biology
DNA assembly
Phage display
Click on each circle to learn more.
Colony picking is critical in many different branches in biology. Here are a few major applications in which the QPix Microbial Colony Picker can help.
Click on each to learn more.
Cherry pick from microplate to microplate to consolidate desired clones
Set up high density arrays for offline screening
Make multiple copies of microplates
Pick the best colonies
Selective screening by fluorescent detection of target protein
Plate samples to agar
6. Re-Arraying
5. Gridding (Arraying)
4. Replicating
3. Picking
2. Screening
1. Plating
A typical QPix system workflow
Click on each for more information
Applications
How it works
QPix Microbial Colony Pickers