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From the editor: What’s New at Beckman Coulter for the Automation Tool Box? The focus of the T3 Update newsletter has always been "What’s New in Automation". It is our charter to share with you New Tips, Tricks and Techniques that have been developed to enable you to get the most out of your Biomek liquid handler or Workstation. In this issue, I am proud to share with you the positive impact of the recent acquisition of Agencourt Bioscience Corporation of Beverly, MA. As indicated in the two press releases, Beckman Coulter acquired Agencourt Bioscience to gain access to SPRIŽ technology. SPRI, which stands for Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization, is an enabling technology for Nucleic Acid sample prep. As illustrated in the six application notes from Agencourt scientists, SPRI technology provides users of Biomek automation an alternative method for Nucleic Acid purification that has the potential to improve the quality and quantity of purified nucleic acid that you’re getting today: "another tool for the tool box"! The applications section is rounded out with App Notes that describe the use of the DTX multimode reader for both Proteomics and Cellular Analysis-based applications. More tools! Bob Lund, product planning manager, provides you descriptions of 4 new accessories for the Biomek liquid handlers: the Automated Tube Bar Code Reader (ATBCR), the Fly-By Bar Code Reader, the Labware Stacking ALP and the P30XL tips. All four accessories provide tools that help you to get more out of your Biomek: improved sample tracking, more efficient use of deck space and the capability to "reach" where you couldn’t before! Custom tools! In our Integrated Solutions section, the team continues the description of the Biomek Multichannel Tip Pipetting which provides a custom solution for 96- or 384- channel heads to enable users to perform serial dilutions in either single or multiple columns or rows. Check it out! This is a big seller! Also in this section, Takahiro Nakamura and his team in Japan describe how they transformed a Biomek FX into the S.U.R.E. Workstation with the introduction of custom transport modules optimized with SAMI scheduling software. Take a look! See what’s possible. If you can imagine it, we can build it! In our Project Management section, Alisa Jackson and Mendy Van Deusen describe how tools from the Beckman Coulter tool box can be assembled into custom solutions to meet specific customer needs. From the use of SAMI Scheduling Software to the use of the BRT transport solution to feed tandem detectors for a cell based assays, the tools can be assembled to meet specific customer needs. What’s new with you? Take some time and answer the short questionnaire that will help us keep the T3 Update newsletter as a fresh communication tool that will ensure that you get the most out of your Biomek liquid handler or Workstation! We are on the look out for new content for issues of the T3 Update newsletter for 2006! Send me your article (Tip, Trick or Technique) before Lab Auto 2006 and you’ll be eligible for the drawing for an iPOD at our booth during the show. Just think how much fun life in the lab will be when you can listen to your own tunes all day long! Submit as many articles as you like! For every piece that we publish you will receive Biomek tools from our tool box: consumables, accessories, PM time, etc. Whatever you need to get the most out of your Automation platform! As I said earlier, it is my goal to provide you with Tips, Tricks and Techniques in the T3 Update newsletter that keep you on track for delivering robust assays that deliver reliable answers to the biological questions posed by your research. Let me know if I've accomplished this goal. Do you have questions I've not yet addressed? This is your forum!
About the editor: My academic training was focused on transcriptional regulation in prokaryotic systems. I defined the essential elements in overlapping promoter DNA sequences in E. coli (Ph.D. in Biology, U.C. Irvine, 1981-1987) and defined specific amino acid – nucleotide contacts made between a developmentally regulated sigma subunit of RNA polymerase and its cognate promoter DNA in B. subtilis (post-doc, Harvard Biolabs, 1987-1991). I left academia to join Beckman Instruments in December 1991, with a goal to develop an alternative DNA amplification technology that did not infringe on PCR. We successfully achieved that goal by developing a DNA ligase-dependent amplification of DNA that could amplify target molecules >106 fold through thermal cycling (PCT/US93/07342). I made a career move off the lab bench to provide technical evaluation of key technologies that enable drug discovery research and provide strategic planning for delivery of those technologies to Beckman Coulter customers. I now hold the title of Applications Marketing Manager. I am responsible for converting assay kits from a manual to an automated format on liquid handlers in the Biomek continuum. I work in Fullerton, Calif., as part of the Platforms and Automation Business Center of the Biomedical Research Division. -- David W. Daniels, Ph.D. For comments or questions about T3 Update, please contact David Daniels, Ph.D., editor.
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