How to Rapidly Scale Up Liquid Handling in Diagnostic Labs 

The COVID-19 crisis has led to unparalleled pressure on labs to ramp up capacity for SARS-CoV-2 testing. Integra’s electronic pipettes, pipetting robots and other instruments have helped many labs tackle this challenge of increasing testing capacity while, at the same time, enhancing the reproducibility of results. 

VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipettes are ideal for transferring patient samples from individual collection tubes - either blood collection or swab tubes - to microplates in serological and PCR testing workflows. Automatic adjustment of tip spacing at the touch of a button allows fast, simultaneous reformatting of up to 12 samples between different labware types. This can be fully automated by combining the VOYAGER pipette with the ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot, further streamlining an array of routine pipetting tasks, such as tube to plate reformatting. 

The VIAFLO 96/384 handheld electronic pipette is an ideal option for boosting throughput when adding buffers or samples to 96 or 384 wells in parallel - for example, during nucleic acid extraction - and is perfect for a range of common methods, including magnetic bead purification protocols and silica-based vacuum extraction kits. 

As the pandemic has progressed, there has been a growing need for serology tests to analyse the immune responses of individual patients, as well as to assess population immunity. The VACUSIP portable aspiration system can be used for safe and convenient liquid waste removal during these immunoassays, which often involve a number of aspiration steps to remove buffers after incubation and washing. 

Integra’s portfolio of products is perfect for laboratories that have had to adjust their workflows to meet urgent COVID-19 demands, requiring rapid implementation and scale-up of new and existing processes. This crisis has been an extreme demonstration of the versatility of Integra A products. 

More information online