Gentle and precise picking of adherent colonies with the Scrape module
Our unique Scrape Module has been developed for efficient recovery of adherent colonies. It uses high-precision autoclavable stainless steel ScrapeTip capillaries. These scrape capillaries are available in diameters of 300 µm, 500 μm, 800 μm and 1000 μm and are placed on the CellCelector in racks of 96 tips each. Automated exchange of the ScrapeTip between picks avoids any risk of cross contamination.
During picking the ScrapeTip capillary is moved down over the colony of interest effectively isolating it from the rest of the culture. A crosswise motion with user-defined distance and speed is then detaching the colony from the plate while aspirating it into the capillary. This patented process allows maximum reproducibility while enabling damage-free recovery of the colonies. Each pick takes approx. 25 seconds.
After the colony has been taken up into the capillary the robot arm moves over the destination well and deposits the picked colony into the plate. After this the used ScrapeTip is released into an empty rack. Once picking is finished the used capillary rack can then be autoclaved and reused for the next picking run.
Key features
- Reusable autoclavable stainless steel ScrapeTip™ capillaries with diameters of 300, 500, 800 and 1000 µm
- Gentle colony picking process combining mechanical scraping and aspiration
- Patented tool head design maximizing picking efficiency even for uneven source plates
- No need for Trypsinization and therefore avoiding cell function alteration
- Avoiding cross contamination by utilizing an automatic exchange of tips between picks
- Up to 3 racks of 96 ScrapeTip™ and 3 destination plates in one walk-away run
- Automatic generation of replica plates or breaking up of colonies by splitting colony into multiple pieces
- No calibration necessary for routine operation
Example of before and after colony picking images
mES colony harvested with the Scrape module
Scrape picking process
After deposition the capillary is released onto an empty rack. After a complete picking run used capillaries are washed and autoclaved.
Use of the adherent colony picking module (Scrape Module) with various source and destination plates
The adherent colony picking module (Scrape Module) can pick colonies from standard 6 well plates or petri dishes up to 100 mm into any type of petri dishes and destination plates (from 6 to 384 well).
Dishes
Microplates (1 to 96 well)
Related applications
- Picking of murine or human embryonic or adult stem cell colonies as well as iPS colonies
- Clonal isolation of iPS colonies after gene editing
- Generation of replica plates from gene edited stem cell clones
- Picking of spheroids, organoids or other large cellular objects
- Targeted and precise co-localization of stem cell colonies on tissue