The RapidPick™ is the first and only fully automated high-throughput colony-picking workcell, that delivers performance and precision unparalleled in the Life Science industry. In addition to allowing researchers to automate the selection and growth of cells grown on a colony plate, it will also retain a record and image of the specific colony and which culture plate/well it inoculated. It provides the users an indispensable, unbroken data path from original colony to final result, eg. tracking a clone to a specific expressed protein. 

This colony-picking workcell includes an integrated Micro 10 dispenser to apply fresh media to growth plates immediately before inoculation, limiting the potential for contamination.  Plates can be immediately sealed with the attached RSH-4000 adhesive sealer. High throughput runs are possible with the attached PlateCrane EX robotic arm with attached stacks to store and manipulate up to 225 microplates in a single run.

This workcell is unique in its completely integrated operation which allows researchers working in Colony Picking, Re-Arraying, and Replication the ability to feed source and destination plates in a compact workcell environment.

In this video, the rapid pick is selecting appropriate colonies and enoculating cultures in deep-well plates, The PlateCrane will then take the culture plate to be sealed for incubation (below):

• Input capacity of 72 deep-well culture growth plate
• Barcode tracking of both colony dish and culture plate/well
• Throughput rate of 6000 colonies per hour
• Integrated media dispenser for fresh growth media in every plate
• Integrated gas-permeable seal applicator to insure freedom from contamination
• Completely integrated operation with products like Liconic's STX 40 robotic incubator which provides complete automation of the entire culture outgrowth process

• Speed: ~6000 colonies/hr

• Calibration: Each tip is calibrated in a process that takes 5 minutes. This is a key advantage over systems that rely on calibration from 1 pin; any deviation in the calibration pin will cause other systems to miss colonies.
• Image Processing: Only 1 image is used to identify all of the colonies on a plate. As you know other pickers use multiple images that get reconstructed, reconstructed images require an overlap parameter that throws away about 10% of your colonies.
• Selection Efficiency: It is an industry standard that only ~72% of all human pickable colonies can be selected and picked by our competitors. The RapidPick™ collects ~90%.

• Tip Cleaning: Tips are cleaned with water from a large carboy followed by sterilization in a 300C oven. This means no EtOH bath to evaporate causing contamination
• Automated Media Filling: Eliminates the need to dispense media at a separate workstation. The micro10's features make it a perfect match for this application.

Including:

• AutoPrime: Primes the system if there was not a dispense during the user determined time interval. This prevents media from drying on the tip ends.
• NO Check Valves: There is only 1 moving part in the micro10 fluid path, a ceramic piston, check valves do fail and cause miss dispensing.
• Intelligent Fill: The RapidPick knows when the best time to fill the next destination plate, this allows parallel processing and eliminates waiting for fresh media plates.

• Sealing: Inoculated culture plates are sealed and put to an output stack or directly into an optional incubator.
• Sample Tracking: All sample movements are tracked by the system using the following techniques.
• Source Destination: A data file is generated showing all of the colony parameters associated with a sample that transferred from a colony tray to a destination plate. A photo of the exact colony collected can be archived and associated with the destination well too.
• Library Control: Either 1 RapidPick of a network of RapidPicks can work against a library pick requirement. This is used to prevent over or under picking for a project.

Available Modules:

• Gel Plate Pouring: Adds Agar to the empty colony trays
• Plating of Transformations Without Glass Beads: Distributes transformations onto the agar plates.
• Incubation: Several Automated Incubators are compatible with the RapidPick, with an integrated incubator; colonies trays can be monitored for optimum colony size prior to the start of the picking process. Additionally, when optimum conditions are met, the incubator can be cooled and humidity controlled to prevent overgrowth and condensation.

• RapidPick
• Hudson Control Group Introduces The First And Only High-Throughput Colony-Picking Workcell