Robotic Protein Handling System

The MassPREP Station is the multifunctional robotic protein handling system developed for The ProteomeWorks System. Incorporating flexible Windows NT-based applications software with pull-down menus and simple user prompts, the MassPREP Station also includes a range of standard sample preparation and digest protocols. However, user customisation of the standard protocols or the scripting of novel protocols is supported.

Functionalities included with the standard MassPREP Station are: in-gel protein reduction, alkylation and digestion in 96-well formatted arrays for two microtiter plates in parallel, with an extended bed option of four microtiter plates.

Four probe liquid dispensing: each probe is capable of independent motion and independent liquid level sensing in the Z direction.

Heating and cooling: onboard software controlled heating (37°C) and cooling (4°C) of microtiter plates.

Reagent cooling: heat labile enzymes and volatile solvents are stored in a refrigerated block until required.

Independent liquid level sensing provides multichannel liquid level sensing technology to minimise reagent volume requirements.

Carry-over elimination: a peristaltic pump provides high volume/high throughput sample tip washing for the reduction of carry-over. Carry-over is reduced to less than 1:1,000,000 with appropriate washing. Volume of washing is programmable on a procedure-specific basis to address different carry-over requirements. Disposable tips are used for critical steps, when zero carry-over is required.

Robotically transferable lids reduce evaporation during the digestion step.

Digested samples in 96-well microtiter plates are directly compatible with Micromass' CapLC and Q-Tof 2 for automated LC-MS-MS analysis. Furthermore, an optional MALDI sample preparation feature enables preparation of digested samples for MALDI-MS on the same robot and is compatible with ProteomeWorks 2D-Gel-MS sample target format.