In issue 4 of the Tecan Journal, Beierdorff AG describe the automation of a test to identify substances with antimicrobial activity against the bacterial strain Corynebacterium xerosis ATCC 7711.

The automated microbiology system based upon the Tecan Genesis robotic manipulator has doubled the throughput of the test while maintaining the system free of contamination.

Each run is capable of testing five substances, samples are automatically taken and plated using a spiral plater. After each pipetting step the tips are decontaminated in 70% ethanol and washed with the system’s washing solution.

Experienced staff can process the assay manually, without any automated steps in about five hours. However, using the automated system described, processing of the same number of samples takes just 90 minutes.

The system is linked to an Access database, which generates barcodes for the plates and also links the barcodes of the sample and the plate. The counting of the colonies on a IUL reader is currently performed offline, but this could be linked into the Access database in order to directly link the number of colonies to the plate barcode.

The Tecan Journal provides scientists involved with Drug Discovery, Genomics, Proteomics and Clinical Diagnostics a global insight into the latest laboratory automation application developments and product introductions.