Equipment available at NPSC

Our specialist equipment facilitates the rapid and robust performance of assays in well-plate format, and is maintained by our dedicated Assay Platform Manager

The majority of our equipment is housed within our robotic automation platform, you can read more about how this is used in high-throughput projects on our Screening Projects page.

High content microscopes

Our High Content Microscopes are fast, automated microscopy systems which facilitate the performance of robust, reliable, and repeatable imaging protocols. Samples in 6- to 1536-well plates, or on slides, can be imaged. Both of our systems are capable of widefield or confocal microscopy. All standard fluorophores can be detected with the wide range of excitation and emission filters. Dual spinning disk confocality, combined with the full environmental control of both systems, facilitates long-term live imaging of samples.

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Widefield or confocal (dual spinning-disk) imaging
Air- and water-immersion objective lenses (5x to 40x)
Full environmental control (temperature and CO2) for live imaging
Fluorescence, brightfield and digital phase contrast imaging
3D Imaging
Simple, fast exchange of lenses and filters

A wide range of fluorophores are supported with the 8 excitation LEDs and broad range of emission filters (with full flexibility, facilitating use of long-shift fluorophores). A range of objective lenses from 5x to 40x, low NA and high NA are available.

Revvity product page

Objective Lenses

Objective	NA	Working Distance (mm)	Plate thickness (mm)	Depth of focus (um)
5x Air	0.16	12.1	0.17	58.2
10x Air	0.3	5.2	0.17	16.2
20x Air	0.4	8.28	0.17	8.0
20x hNA Air	0.8	0.55	0 - 1.5	2.6
20x Water	1.0	1.7	0.17	1.8
40x Air	0.6	3.28	0 - 1.5	3.3
40x Water	1.1	1.1	0.17	1.2

Additional lenses are available from Revvity

Excitation and Emission filters

Excitation (LED)	Emission Filters
355-385	430-500
435-460	500-550
460-490	525-580
490-515	570-620
530-560	570-650
560-575	585-640
615-645	655-705
650-675	655-760
	685-760

Additional emission filters are available from Revvity

Widefield or confocal (dual spinning-disk) imaging
Full environmental control (temperature and CO2) for live imaging
Fluorescence, brightfield and digital phase contrast imaging
3D Imaging
Fast acquisition (up to 105 fps)
Integrated liquid handling

Yokogawa product page

Objective Lenses

Objective	NA
10X dry	0.4
20X dry	0.75
40X dry	0.95
60X water	1.2
20X LWD	0.45
20X Phase Contrast	0.45

Excitation and Emission filters

	Light Source	Emission Filters
Solid State Lasers	405nm	445/45
	488nm	525/50
	561nm	600/37
	640nm	679/29
White Light	100W Halogen lamp	447/45 (Dual)
		522/35 (Dual)

Liquid Handling

We have a wide range of robotic liquid handlers which are capable of performing all the required processes for assay performance in 96- and 384-well plates. Our Beckman Echo 550 supports the highly accurate, low volume liquid transfers required for compound dosing; our Agilent Bravo facilitates tip-based liquid transfers between 96- and 384-well plates; our plate washers (Agilent 405 LS, 406FX) and reagent dispensers (Formulatrix Tempest and Multidrop Combi) facilitate the rapid washing and accurate addition of reagents in 96- and 384-well plates.

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Acoustic (tip-free) liquid handler for highly accurate, very low volume transfers with unsurpassed accuracy and reproducibility. Compounds (or siRNAs) can be transferred directly on to plates pre-seeded with cells (384 or 1536 well plates only)

Transfer 2.5nl-1ul from source plate to destination plate
Transfers from LDV or PE Echo-compatible Source plates supported
Transfer to 96- or 384-well Destination plates (Deep Well plates not supported)
Transfer of DMSO or aqueous liquids

Software supports multiple different modes of compound transfer

Direct Stamp for plate replication or compound library treatment
Dose Response for generation of highly accurate compound titration curves (including DMSO backfill)
Cherry Pick and Plate Reformat for completely flexible compound transfers (facilitating random placement of test and/or control compounds)

Log files generated by the Echo allow traceability of compound placement in Destination plates.

Agilent 405LS

Robust, quick washes on well plates (aspiration and dispensation of 50ul or more per well). Three are available: two in our Screening lab, and one also in a laminar flow hood in our TC suite.

Agilent 406FX

Robust, quick washes on well plates (aspiration and dispensation of 50ul or more per well), with 4 additional independent dispensation lines allowing dispensation from 5ul per well.

Formulatrix Tempest

Dispenses up to 12 reagents, highly accurate from 1ul/well. Complete flexibility in dispensation (different reagents and/or volumes in different wells) gives the ability to automatically dispense reagent titrations.

Multidrop Combi

Fast and accurate dispensation of a single reagent into whole or partial plates. Ideal for cell seeding into well plates. Two are available: one in our Screening lab, and one in a laminar flow hood in our TC suite.

Enquiries and training

Get in touch to enquire about our equipment or to arrange a training session.

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