An integrated, easy-to-use, and cost-effective technology platform for the rapid handling and growth of large numbers of microbial strains, clonal libraries, mutant banks and cell lines in 24 or
96-well microtiter plates.
+
The system enables a single person to grow and test thousands of strains simultaneously with a minimum amount of repetitive handling. All handling is performed in parallel for sets of 96 strains. No robotic equipment is required.
+
Same quality of growth as in Erlenmeyer flasks in terms of oxygen transfer rates and reproducibility.
+
The system was originally developed and validated at the Institute of Biotechnology of the ETH Zurich.
+
Various users have reported time savings of more than a factor 10.
Application areas:
+
High-throughput screening for new enzyme activities or formation of secondary metabolites (heterogeneous and homogeneous culture collections)
+
Screening and distribution of clone libraries in E. coli or yeasts
+
High-throughput screening for high-activity or high-productivity mutants
+
Comparative studies of e.g. clinical isolates
+
Medium optimization studies
Main components:
+
The cryo-replicator: a precision spring-loaded
device for the simultaneous and reproducible sampling of 96 frozen glycerol stocks, without melting the remaining culture
+
The cryo-replicator press is a guiding system ensuring an accurate vertical movement during the replication of sets of strains
+
Sandwich covers convert all 24 or 96 wells of a square deepwell plate into individual "mini-reactors" suitable for high-frequency orbital shaking, with high oxygen transfer rates, and
no well-to-well variations.
+
Cover clamps ensure the deepwell plate and its sandwich cover are clamped together tightly, thereby preventing well-to-well contamination
