Echo Liquid Handling for Synthetic Biology

SynBio workflow complexity conquered.

Echo 525 Acoustic Liquid Handler

“(The Echo) is an extremely fast instrument... a significant savings in terms of time. We’ve been able to compress pipelines that take about 12 hours to about 3 hours."

-Dr. Sunil Chandran, Amyris Biotechnologies

Inherently complicated and time-consuming synthetic biology workflows can be conquered—when your primary weapon is an Echo acoustic liquid handler.

 

Armed with Echo technology, you can miniaturize and accelerate DNA assembly and you can make your NGS library prep less costly and more efficient for QC of gene synthesis.

Whether you use the Gibson Assembly or Golden Gate cloning method, tipless Echo Liquid Handlers—integrated into an Access Workstation—can create a high-throughput, fully automated system for pooling oligos, assembling constructs and spotting colonies.

With an Echo system, you’ll simplify workflows and save time and money because you can:

  • Transfer from any well to any well, thus enabling automation of complex assays
  • Reduce volumes up to 100-fold (down to 25 nL) to dramatically cut reagent costs, save precious samples and prevent dilution errors
  • Rapidly pool oligos or DNA fragments from library plates—transferring each in < 1 second, which can save 10-15 hours for high-throughput labs
  • Enjoy faster, more accurate transfers without the risk for contact-induced volume loss or contamination 

“At Codex DNA, the Echo 525 Liquid Handler and Access Workstation from Beckman Coulter Life Sciences has become an integral part of our BioXp™ system gene synthesis workflows. Processes that would take 8 hours with traditional liquid handlers now take less than 30 minutes with the Echo, enabling the construction of DNA variant libraries at an unprecedented scale. Moreover, the high accuracy and precision of non-contact acoustic transfers ensure that we’re delivering every oligonucleotide with the utmost confidence.”

John E. Gill, Senior Director of R&D, Codex DNA

Because you can transfer volumes as low as 25 nL, high-concentration libraries don’t have to be diluted prior to transfer, resulting in simultaneous normalization while pooling. This enables equal distribution of reads to every sample—and an even representation of all samples—which greatly reduces the time to normalize and pool libraries, and improves the reliability of the entire library preparation process.

What’s more, the accuracy and precision of Echo Liquid Handlers eliminate noise from assay data to enable better detection of small changes in microbes and other organisms.

Read more—and watch the videos—to learn why market-leading synthetic biology companies use Echo Liquid Handlers to conquer the complexity of automating gene synthesis.

Watch a recent webinar from Andrew Hunt of Northwestern University: Accelerating Antibody Discovery with Cell Free Protein Synthesis and Automation

View a webinar from Olivier Borkowski of Institute Pasteur: Active-learning Cell-free Protein Production Optimization

Featured Video: Accelerating Synthetic Biology with Echo Acoustic Liquid Handling

Related Synthetic Biology and Echo Videos

 

Watch: Amyris Biotechnologies Discusses the Benefits of Using the Echo Liquid Handler

 

Watch: The process of analyzing yeast colonies used to assemble chromosomes in the GenomeFoundry at NYU Langone Medical Center 

Content and Resources

Synthetic Biology Workflow and Related Products Design. Build. Test. An overview of synthetic biology steps and associated products.
Effective Miniaturization of Illumina Nextera XT Library Prep for Multiplexed Whole Genome Sequencing and Microbiome Applications Here we detail a method to miniaturize reaction volumes utilized in the Illumina Nextera XT DNA library kit, thereby reducing the overall cost per reaction while maintaining equivalent data to the standard protocol.
Streamlined Synthetic Biology with Acoustic Liquid Handling The Echo Liquid Handler has demonstrated the ability to generate DNA constructs using various assembly chemistries in combination with these modular pieces in a miniaturized workflow.

Talk To An Expert

 

Journal of Laboratory Automation (JALA) Special Issue:
Paulina Kanigowska, Yue Shen, Yijing Zheng, Susan Rosser, and Yizhi Cai; School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh

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Smart DNA Fabrication Using Sound Waves: Applying Acoustic Dispensing Technologies to Synthetic Biology

 

Advantages of Echo Acoustic Liquid Handling on your SynBio Workflow

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Streamlined Synthetic Biology with Acoustic Liquid Handling

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