Hi all, I was wondering if anyone knows what the most efficient way to create an ELISA protocol on Fluent? I have been trying how to make the incubation periods more efficient as I want it to prepare other reagents in the middle of an incubation. I have a script with timer going but I am not sure how else to go about this. I’ve looked at processes but I’m not very experienced with this besides just building scripts.
I put everything in subroutines because it allows me to run them sync or async.
To use an async setup:
- Make the incubation subroutine async
- Execute reagent creation subroutine
- Wait for subroutine #2 to complete (Same as #2 with a different checkbox for waiting)
- Wait for subroutine #1 to complete (Same as #1 with a different checkbox for waiting)
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If you only intend to run a few number of ELISA plates, using the “ElapsedTime” function to monitor the main incubation timer to a value and then execute some pipetting is an efficient way to overlay steps
if you want to run multiple plates in parallel, using the Scheduler is the best approach as it handles the resource/time management more effectively and adjusts as needed
happy to field more questions,
just finished up a complex multi-assay ELISA workflow using differing dilutions, differing assays and scheduler processes -it got ugly but seems to be working great after liquid class optimizations
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I would like to learn more about how to do this properly. I am a novice in using subroutines - eek! Would you mind showing an example?
I would like to know how you used the “ElapsedTime” function if you’re willing to share. I’m open to any ideas!
no problem - image below is a screen grab of the “elapsedtimer” working
this was a quick test to run a timer for a user defined period of time (60 seconds), to monitor the “elapsed time” every 5 seconds, and then to react when the elapsed time is <= 90% of the user defined time (~50 seconds in this example),
comment lines are added to write the logic results to the audit trail file
Line 7 handles the 11 decimal points in the elapsed time (assuming you don’t need to react to 1/10,000,000 of a second …
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I have tried to create an example of what Luis is talking about:
You have three scripts Testmain, Test1Incubate and Test1pipetting.
Test1Incubate have some incubation (60 sec)
Test1pipetting does some pipetting
Testmain run the two scripts as subscripts.
See example scripts here:
Test1Incubate
Test1pipetting
When the main script is run you see that the pipetting actions and the waiting for the timer is run at the same time because Test1Pipetting is run before Test1Incubation has ended.
@Science1 It would be good to know if you plan to run multiple ELISA assay plates in parallel and if yes how many? Multiple iterations of the same ELISA or one or multiple iterations of several different ELISA assays? Shall it be flexible how many iterations are running? Do you already have FluentControl Scheduler license anyway, since you mentioned you have looked at processes?
I think working with async subroutines that run in parallel to other scripts can soon become quite complex, for example if there are 3 or more ELISA plates that shall run in parallel, then it is probably easier and more flexible with FC Scheduler processes (than with async subroutines). Because with processes, one can program one process and then just increase the iteration number of that process to scale up from one process iteration to multiple process iterations and it is FC Scheduler who is then supposed to figure out the timing of the run.
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Greetings!
Thank you all for the helpful advice!
To answer your question for the moment I am planning to run 2 plates with 1 assay (so multiple iterations for the same ELISA). The incubation times are a bit sensitive so time matters in this case. Eventually I’d like to have different assays running in parallel which I 100% agree that the Fluent Scheduler would be best for that but I think I would need to have Hotels for this which I currently don’t but I do have the license. I’ll most likely ask for assistance or advice on how to best use the Fluent Scheduler when running multiple assays at once for ELISAs. Your help is much appreciated! Thanks again!