KingFisher flex magnetic particle processor

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Remarkable and transformative advances have taken place in the biological sciences in the past decade or two, largely driven by advances in technologies and computational capacity that have allowed rapid determination of the sequences of genomes and identification and characterization of proteins within organisms. Not only does this allow biological scientists to investigate "whole" biological systems at one time ... both to understand the system and to identify optimal components, but also it makes possible the improvement of components of the biological system by mimicking Mother Nature's evolutionary process of natural selection. Such 'directed evolution' approaches are providing, amongst others, useful new catalysts (enzymes) that are more efficient than existing processes and "greener" for use in industrial processes. When searching through such a vast collection of enzymes, whether from natural sources or engineered, it is necessary to isolate and purify large numbers of those enzymes having the functions that we are interested in. Automated robotics, such as that proposed in this application, allow hundreds to thousands of enzymes to be isolated in parallel so that more in-depth analysis of their functions and physiological properties can be undertaken, thereby allowing the very best of them to be selected for use. After selectively attaching our enzymes of interest to specially modified magnetic particles, the 96 magnetic rods of this instrument can, in parallel, specifically pull out the enzymes of interest from the crude mixtures and wash them to remove contaminating proteins, thereby allowing subsequent analysis of these improved enzymes in our high-throughput screens.