MÄNNEDORF, SWITZERLAND — Tecan is proud to offer end-to-end cellomics workflow solutions, including cell seeding and culture with quality control and monitoring, through drug dosing to live-cell imaging and analysis. This comprehensive offering enables laboratories to improve the reliability, reproducibility, and throughput of their workflows, addressing key challenges in the growing field of 3D cell biology.
Complex 3D cell models—such as spheroids, organoids, and organ-on-a-chip systems—have great potential in many applications, from drug development to personalized medicine research. A lack of reproducibility still poses a challenge in many of these workflows. Automation is the key to overcoming this issue, helping labs to increase throughput and achieve consistent and reliable workflows.
Tecan’s cellomics portfolio includes the recently launched Uno Single Cell Dispenser™, a compact, automated benchtop instrument that delivers single-cell isolation and reagent dispensing in a single system. This cost-effective device enables researchers to dispense single cells into a 384-well plate in around five minutes while maintaining a robust 90 percent cell viability for downstream analyses.
Central to Tecan’s offering for cellomics is the Fluent® automated liquid handling workstation. The system, optimized for cell culture maintenance, cell seeding, and medium exchange (from 6- to 1,536-well plates), handles complex matrices such as Matrigel® with ease and offers truly scalable workflows through the integration of centrifuges, incubators, and peripheral devices. To automate the generation of dose-response curves, synergy experiments, and serial dilutions, the D300e Digital Dispenser provides automatic dispensing from picoliter to microliter scales, empowering both small- and large-molecule drug discovery.
Tecan’s flagship multimode reader, Spark® Cyto, has been designed specifically for automated monitoring and assay measurement of live-cell cultures. Its imaging systems, which include both bright field and fluorescence capabilities, and its full environmental control (temperature and gas), support whole-well imaging of microplates and undisturbed cell growth for rapid analysis and reliable results. Combining multiplex plate reading and cell image analysis in a single instrument improves assay reproducibility and reliability of results. It also provides more insights, including the assessment of ATP levels and spheroid growth.
In an update scheduled for 2024, the introduction of AI-based 3D analysis tools for Spark Cyto will further enhance this instrument’s capabilities. The tools will open up new possibilities for scientific research by improving efficiency, accuracy, and the depth of insights that can be derived from experiments.
Luca Valeggia, Senior Vice President of Laboratory Automation at Tecan, said: “Automated workflows are key in any cellomics laboratory, and the latest additions to our cellomics product portfolio reinforce Tecan’s position as a leading provider to this important sector. Obtaining seamless, end-to-end solutions from a single supplier enables us to fulfill our purpose of empowering our customers to focus on accelerating the research and scaling important healthcare innovations.”