Nanopipettingrobot and Crystalisationhotel with UV-/VIS Camera

我们申请由移液机器人和结晶“酒店”组成的结晶管道。移液机器人必须能够以高度精确的方式分配96孔板中的储液池以及用于结晶滴的纳升体积滴液。所申请的结晶酒店用于在规定的稳定温度下储存分配的96孔结晶板，并配备UV / vis相机/显微镜，可以自动对板进行成像，也可以由用户手动进行成像。这两种设备使用相同的软件（“岩石制造”）和相同的数据库，将它们连接到结晶管道。机器人：蛋白质的结晶要从最初的结晶实验开始。通常，在第一次实验中至少要设置1000个不同的结晶液滴，其体积很小（100 - 200nl）。由于某些蛋白质（如膜蛋白）无法大量表达和纯化，或者某些化合物（如配体、底物、抑制剂等）非常昂贵（用于共结晶试验），因此液滴的体积非常小，只能使用少量样品。由于必须转移100升的非常小的体积，因此机器人的分配性能必须非常精确。这也导致需要有一个封闭的系统，配备可调节的加湿器，以防止这些微小的液滴干燥。机器人必须能够处理各种常用的工艺(例如：“坐滴”、“挂滴”、“微批”和“脂质立方相”（LCP）)以及相应的96孔板储层。酒店：酒店必须配备冷却系统，使结晶板的储存温度可靠且可调。此外，需要一个具有显微镜功能的集成UV / vis相机和合适的软件，以确保在这些规定的温度条件下自动成像。此外，这是必不可少的显微镜可以在非自动的方式使用，以便用户可以分析与个人设置滴。对于自动成像（文档）的时间表、所有数据的管理以及每个实验的相关实验参数的实施，需要一个带有相应软件的数据库。这反过来意味着移液机器人和存储酒店两者的软件必须相互兼容以及与使用的数据库兼容，才能使这种结晶管道成为可能。

We apply for a crystallization pipeline composed of a pipetting robot and a crystallization "hotel". The pipetting robot must be able to dispense the reservoirs in the 96-well plates as well as the nanoliter volume drops for the crystallization drops in a highly precise manner. The applied for crystallization hotel is used for the storage of the dispensed 96-well crystallization plates at a defined and stable temperature and is equipped with a UV-/VIS-camera/microscope which allows automated imaging of the plates as well as manually by the user. Both devices use the same software (“Rock Maker”) and use the same database, connecting them to a crystallization pipeline. Robot: The crystallization of proteins starts with the set-up of initial crystallization experiments. Commonly at least 1000 different crystallization drops with a tiny volume (100 - 200 nl) are set up for the first experiments. The drops are so small in volume to use small sample amounts since some proteins cannot be expressed and purified in large quantities (e. g. membrane proteins), or since some compounds (e. g. ligands, substrates, inhibitors etc.) are extremely expensive (for co-crystallization trials). Due to the fact that very small volumes of 100 nl has to be transferred the dispensing performance of the robot has to be extremely precise. This also leads to the need to have a closed system which is equipped with an adjustable humidifier to prevent these tiny drops from drying out. The robot must be able to handle all kinds of the commonly used technics (e. g. "sitting-drop", "hanging drop", "microbatch" und "Lipid Cubic Phase" (LCP)) and also the corresponding reservoirs of these 96-well plates. Hotel: The hotel must be equipped with a cooling system to enable a reliable and adjustable temperature for the storage of the crystallization plates. Furthermore, an integrated UV-/VIS-camera with microscope functionality and suited software is needed in order to ensure an automated imaging under these defined temperature conditions. Additionally, it is essential that this microscope can be use in a non-automatic manner so that the user can analyze the drops with individual settings. For the schedule of the automated imaging (documentation), the management of all data and the implementation of the relevant experimental parameters of each experiment, a database with a suited software is needed. This in turn means that the software of both, the pipetting robot and the storage hotel, have to be compatible with each other as well as with the used database to make this crystallization pipeline possible.