Hi everyone,
I am looking for vacuum or positive-pressure SPE systems compatible with plates or cartridges that can be integrated into a liquid handling device. What systems are currently available on the market? Do you have any experience with such a system?
I’m familiar with the Hamilton MPE module on the VANTAGE:
https://www.hamiltoncompany.com/automated-liquid-handling/small-devices/mpe2
I used it for SPE of metabolites using different filter plates (e.g. PTFE, MW cutoff). It was fairly easy to setup and documentation with Hamilton is plentiful! Optimization of each filter plate with different samples and buffers is needed though.
Depending on use case and instrument of choice, there’s the Resolvex A200, or Te-VacS from Tecan’s side. See more here: Tecan’s Solid Phase Extraction Solutions.
You can also use individual tips with Hamiltons (not sure about other lqhandlers) such as the DPX https://dpxtechnologies.com/xtr/ - We set these up at our facility to do cartridge chemistry for analytical prep of patient samples with our Hamilton Nimbus units, these eliminate the need to have a SPE unit entirely, but a lot of liquid class work is required to get them to work exactly as you want them
Great comment @asho , there are also other vendors who offer individual tip-based SPE:
most pipetting instrument manufacturer’s have their own tailored vacuum manifold solution or positive pressure manifold solution,
i’ve worked with Tecan, Hamilton, Perkin Elmer & Beckman’s vacuum solutions - they’re pretty simple, robust in use but impacted by usual vacuum problems if certain sorbent beds empty quicker than others
i worked a lot with SPEware’s positive pressure units (before Tecan bought them out), and their devices were v good - but initially not particularly integrateable
Tecan has integrated a few modules e.g. Waters Pos Pressure (which I think was an OEM SPEware), Resolvex A200 also,
which liquid handling devices would you need to integrate with?
most of the pos pressure are designed specifically for that manufacturer’s platform - so your choice would be limited
a lot of applications I’ve designed where variety of labware is key - a centrifuge has been the best option for labware flexibility (maybe not for cartridges as clearance height & volume of liquid flow through are a problem, here we did a dual vacuum/centrifugation setup)
do you know if there are further SPE-in-a-tip vendors?
does anyone have experience with this technology, especially for whole blood or serum/plasma sample preparation for mass spec?
cheers
Max
I’m familiar with the ones I shared, specifically Biotage. I optimized them for peptide cleanups using their reverse phase C18 tips (for a Hamilton VANTAGE) to prep samples for proteomics-MS, but it did take quite a bit of optimization depending on the reagents you want to use.
Biotage had good starter protocols for us to use the tips out of the box though, so we made little tweaks here and there to make them work for our use case.
Very interesting topic. Biomek also automated with an Amplius X-well positive pressure. how are threated the volatile reagents? specially the organic solvent (acetonitrile, methanol)? it cannot be kept much time on deck at RT.
which liquid handler do you need to integrate with ?
as the OEM devices are pretty much locked down (without some form of hackery), it would be good to know more specifics about your current platform/platforms
Tecan has recently launched the Resolvex I300: positive pressure for columns and plates, droplet protection, online reagent dispensing and evaporation option. Pretty slick integrated in a Fluent. See Resolvex i300 – A single platform to automate proteomics sample prep workflows or Proteomics Workflow for more info.