KingFisher flex magnetic particle processor

在过去一二十年里，生物科学取得了显著的变革性进展，主要是由于技术和计算能力的进步，使生物体内的基因组序列得以快速测定，蛋白质得以鉴定和表征。 这不仅使生物科学家能够同时研究“整个”生物系统。它不仅有助于理解系统并确定最佳组件，而且还可以通过模仿自然界自然选择的进化过程来改进生物系统的组件。这种“定向进化”方法尤其提供了比现有方法更有效且“更绿色”的有用的新催化剂（酶），用于工业过程。当搜索如此大量的酶时，无论是来自天然来源还是工程来源，都有必要分离和纯化大量具有我们感兴趣的功能的酶。自动化机器人技术，如本申请中提出的，允许并行分离数百至数千种酶，以便可以对其功能和生理特性进行更深入的分析，从而允许选择其中最好的酶供使用。 在将我们感兴趣的酶选择性地附着到特别修饰的磁性颗粒上之后，该仪器的96个磁棒可以并行地从粗混合物中特异性地拉出感兴趣的酶并洗涤它们以去除污染蛋白质，从而允许在我们的高通量筛选中对这些改进的酶进行后续分析。

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.