Environmental Control Microarray Printing: Importance and Challenges

The ability to control humidity and temperature for microarray printing applications of DNA, proteins, and cells is essential for many laboratory workflows. A lack of humidity and temperature control can lead to a detrimental loss in spotting consistency and a lack of reproducibility. Current manual methods for microarray printing are very tedious and prone to human error. To address these issues, Aurora has developed a versatile automated environmental control microarray printing workstation to facilitate DNA, cell, protein, and glycan microarray.

Automating Environmental Control Microarray Printing: The VERSA® 10 Microarray Spotter Workstation (Contact or Non-Contact)

The VERSA 10 Spotter with integrated temperature and humidity control unit allows for nano to microscale liquid contact printing on glass, cellulose membrane, and microplate platforms. By controlling these environmental factors in a HEPA filter enclosed hood, the VERSA 10 Spotter minimizes the risk of external sample cross contamination whilst maximizing array quality.

The VERSA 10 Spotter comes in both contact and non-contact formats with a printing-head that can be expanded to up to 40 channels, meeting even the most demanding of application requirements. For non-contact printing, the NanoPipettor can both aspirate and dispense the sample liquid from a specified height, using a dual vacuum-positive pressure system. For contact printing, a stainless-steel pin head or plastic pipette tip is used to distribute the sample liquid by bringing it in contact with the target material. Our software allows for increased flexibility in robotic movements, allowing the user to micro-control the desired range of movements, the spotting volume, and to standardize the spacing between spots.

Specifications of Environmental Control Unit

• Control Range: 30-70% Relative Humidity
• Working Temperature: 15-25 ℃
• Measurement accuracy: Humidity (±2%) Temperature (±0.5 ℃)

For a full list of features and to learn more about how the VERSA® 10 Microarray Spotter can automate environmental control microarray printing workflows, please contact us!