320 companies participated in the SLAS2016 Exhibition, 40 of which submitted new products to be considered for the SLAS2016 New Product Award. SLAS congratulates the following winners:
Product: REVO
LabMinds Revo is a smart, adaptable and fully automated liquid solution production system. It offers complete control over measuring and mixing solid and liquid compounds, as well as over environmental constraints, including sterility. Revo allows users to order and customize solutions remotely using its web or mobile interface, and notifies them when they have been filtered, securely dispensed and are ready to be collected. It reportedly offers unparalleled data integration and transparency and provides GHS-compliant labels for each prepared solution. In addition, it improves process adherence, efficiency, reproducibility, accuracy and limits exposure. With full process automation and a sophisticated predictive maintenance approach, Revo releases scientific minds from the burden of procedural lab tasks, the company says.
Product: PRIMO
Billed as the first multi-protein printing platform, Primo is an innovative solution for printing proteins on cell culture dishes. Directly mounted on an inverted microscope, the device consists of an optical illumination module coupled with the use of PLPP, a photo-activator molecule. The image to be printed is projected by a UV laser through the microscope in the presence of PLPP, which catalyses the UV effect. The protein is then added and will bind to the illuminated areas.
Products: Lumos and Maestro APEX
Maestro APEX is reportedly the world’s first robotic interface designed specifically for the preparation, maintenance and execution of MEA assay plates. All of APEX’s automation functions are seamlessly integrated into a sterile compact work station, which includes a robotic liquid handler, 44-plate capacity incubator, environmental controller and HEPA filtration system. And since a short ramp-up time and quality results are equally critical to success, APEX comes with validated protocols that are proven to save time while generating high-quality, reliable MEA plates and data. With minimal user interaction, Maestro APEX is said to save up to 90 percent of the time typically required to perform the following tasks:
- MEA plate preparation: Endless hours preparing MEA plates are over! APEX deposits surface coatings, spots cells, adds media, and automatically transfers the plates to the incubator while you focus on other activities
- APEX Maestro plate with left marginMEA plate maintenance: Store pre-filled media reservoirs in the incubator and schedule automated media exchanges any time including nights and weekends
- MEA assay execution: APEX fully integrates with Maestro control software, AxIS, to start/stop recordings and dose MEA plates automatically. With the new motorized docking upgrade for the Maestro, MEA plates are transferred directly from the incubator to the Maestro for MEA experiments.
And, to facilitate the rapidly emerging use of optogenetic techniques with MEA assays, Axion has introduced Lumos, an optical stimulation device designed to pair with the Maestro MEA platform. Now researchers can deliver light to each well of a multiwell MEA plate for enhanced control of cell networks during simultaneous recordings of real-time, functional activity data.
Lumos, the company says, has revolutionized in-vitro optogenetics tools with the following features:
- Independent control of light delivery to 48 MEA wells
- Each well contains four LEDs, usable in combination
- Generation of optical patterns with microsecond precision
- Fine modulation of intensity for each wavelength
These capabilities allow, for the first time, cell-type specific activation or inhibition of MEA cultured networks on a multiwell level, the company says.
