Instruments
The MaxGENESYS biofoundry operates machines allowing high-throughput biology. Currently each piece of equipment is one module allowing to maximize the usage of the individual machines and gives the maximum of flexibility for projects. Various workflows are established and novel workflows tailored to the individual projects are constantly developed expanding the modular workflows within MaxGENESYS. Below is an overview of existing equipment and examples for its usage. If any of the equipment may be relevant for your project please contact us at MaxGENESYS@mpi-marburg.mpg.de. MaxGENESYS tries to work as sustainable as possible for example by minimizing plastic waste by using different types of equipment which does not rely on pipetting tips.
Acoustic liquid handling
Acoustic handling of liquids is the future. It allows the transfer of liquids from a source plate to a receiver plate which is inverted on top of the source plate. An animation of the technology of the vendor is provided on YouTube. The MaxGENESYS facility is operating two acoustic dispensers which mainly differ in the droplet volume which can be transferred which is either 2.5 nL or 25 nL. This equipment has been successfully applied to increase throughput in cloning and enzymatic assays and allowed at the same time to scale down reaction volumes. Standard DNA assemblies are performed in 1 µL total volume, allowing for sustainable workflows with reduced valuable consumables and without the need for pipetting tips, reducing plastic waste.
Liquid handling
Two liquid handling systems for more complex and repetitive workflows are available. One in particular for workflows relying on column/filter based protocols (i.e. DNA purification). This machine uses a device with pressured air rather than vacuum to push liquids through the column/filter having various advantages. The other for general repetitive liquid handling equipped with multiple modules such as a 96-tip head, on-deck PCR cycler and shakers for temperature controlled incubation.
Colony picking
Picking of microbial colonies has to be performed in many different experimental setups. The MaxGENESYS biofoundry is operating a versatile colony picker which is easy to use and highly flexible serving the needs of nearly any experiment.
High-throughput cell culture
MaxGENESYS operates a specific incubator for microtiter and deep-well plates. With 3 mm shaking diameter with up to 1000 rpm it allows cultivation in up to 384 well plates with ideal growth conditions. The equipment allows for phototrophic growth under CO2 controlled conditions with tight temperature and humidity control. For example with our equipment we can grow E. coli cultures for plasmid extractions in 1 mL total volume for downstream applications (details can be found in this open access publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36044590/).
High-throughput cell screenings
For cell screening and analysis MaxGENESYS operates a screening robot allowing the transfer of liquid or solid cultures in 96- and 384-well format into high densitiy formats of up to 6144 candidates on a single plate. However, the normal working range is in 96-, 384 and 1536 format in liquid and/or solid media. To complement the setup multiple plate reader options and a plate documentation system are available allowing for various data acquisition options to get the maximum out of each experiment.
Short and long-read sequencing
MaxGENESYS is mostly using external services for Sanger and short-read sequencing, long-read sequencing is frequently performed in house. Within the institute and the research campus short-read sequencing equipment is available if quick turnaround time is required.
Other equipment:
Plate Sealer
MaxGENESYS is operating a plate sealer for reliable sealing of plates for analytical purposes.
qPCR and PCR machines up to 384-well format
MaxGENESYS is operating a set of multiple PCR machines allowing the flexible work with single tube reactions, 96-well plates or 384-well plates. Besides the standard machines a 384-well qPCR machine is available which can be used for genotyping and construct validation as well as transcript analysis.
Small volume bulk-dispenser
MaxGENESYS is operating a small volume dispenser capable of aspirating and dispensing small volumes into various microtiter plate formats. A bulk mode allows for larger volumes if necessary within workflows. The machine allows to work with volumes starting from 300 nL and liquids can be fully recovered to minimize waste of valuable resources. Further it operates free of plastic consumables and can be considered as sustainable equipment for your workflows.
Pipetting stations
MaxGENESYS is operating pipetting stations with exchangeable heads with various volume ranges in 24- and 96-well format. This flexible equipment allows for example the preparation of plates and smaller proof-of-concept studies.
Pulsed-field-gelelectrophoresis
MaxGENESYS has access to a pulsed-field-gel-electrophoresis system allowing the analysis of intact chromosomes and the validation of large constructs.