Researchers at the University of North Texas are using INTEGRA’s VIAFLO 96 electronic pipette to increase the throughput of their ELISA, Luminex and flow cytometry workflows, as well as to improve the reproducibility of their results. The Applied Physiology Laboratory at UNT focuses on research in two key areas – physiologic and immunologic consequences of weight change, and using nutritional countermeasures to maximize immune health after exercise – and performs analysis and testing for other research groups in related fields. Professor Brian McFarlin explained: “We conduct a lot of multiplexed analysis of protein and RNA biomarkers, and this requires precise pipetting. For one study we were performing 50 flow cytometry preps per blood sample, and had over 2,000 samples, so we needed to reduce the amount of manual pipetting we were carrying out.

I came across the VIAFLO 96 at a biomarker conference and, after seeing the ability to change the modules to have different volumes, I knew it was just what I needed. It’s been an absolute lifesaver for our work; we use it for sample transfer from storage tubes to reagent plates and reagent additions, especially for running Luminex® assays and ELISAs. We have since added VIAFLO and VOYAGER electronic pipettes and an ASSIST to our collection, and we’re looking to purchase an ASSIST PLUS for our workflow. We exclusively use INTEGRA pipettes for all of our liquid transfer work because of the benefits they offer; not only has our throughput increased tremendously, saving a lot of time, but the performance of our assays has improved. Our results are much more reproducible and there is a reduced risk of error,” concluded Brian.