Nanopipettingrobot and Crystalisationhotel with UV-/VIS Camera

我们申请了一条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精度的方式分配96孔板中的储液器以及用于结晶液滴的纳升体积液滴。申请的结晶酒店用于在定义和稳定的温度下存储分配的96孔结晶板，并配备了UV/VIS相机/显微镜，允许用户对板进行自动成像和手动成像。这两个设备使用相同的软件(“Rock Maker”)和相同的数据库，将它们连接到一条结晶管道。机器人：蛋白质的结晶始于初始结晶实验的建立。通常至少建立1000个小体积(100-200nL)的不同结晶液滴用于第一次实验。由于某些蛋白质(如膜蛋白)不能大量表达和纯化，或由于某些化合物(如配体、底物、抑制剂等)不能大量表达和纯化，因此液滴体积很小，不能使用少量的样本量。非常昂贵(用于共结晶试验)。由于必须转移100毫升的极小体积，因此机器人的点胶性能必须非常精确。这也导致了需要有一个封闭的系统，该系统配备了一个可调的加湿器，以防止这些微小的水滴干燥。机器人必须能够处理各种常用的工艺(如“坐滴”、“挂滴”、“微批”和“脂立方相”(LCP))，以及96孔板的相应储液器。酒店：酒店必须配备冷却系统，以便为结晶板的储存提供可靠和可调的温度。此外，还需要一个具有显微镜功能的集成UV/VIS相机和合适的软件，以确保在这些定义的温度条件下进行自动成像。此外，该显微镜必须能够以非自动的方式使用，以便用户可以使用单独的设置来分析液滴。对于自动成像(文档)的时间表、所有数据的管理和每个实验的相关实验参数的执行，需要一个带有合适软件的数据库。这反过来意味着，吸液机器人和仓储酒店的软件必须相互兼容，并与使用的数据库兼容，才能使这条结晶管道成为可能。

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.