Publication: Development and Validation of automated PCR workflows.

The team at Omix are proud to announce that our latest scientific work is available to read on the preprint server, medRxiv.

The implementation of automated PCR MasterMix preparation brought about a game-changing cultural and technological transformation to a high-throughput molecular diagnostic facility, which we have previously written about here.

Now, we are pleased to share the data and methods with the community.

Development and validation of automated methods for COVID-19 PCR MasterMix preparation:

Giorgio Fedele, Graham Hill, Amelia Sweetford, Suki Lee, Bobby Yau, Domenico R. Caputo, Denise Grovewood, Rowda Dahir, Paula Esquivias Ruiz-Dana, Anika Wisniewska, Anna Di Biase, Miles Gibson, Benita Percival, Stefan Grujic, Donald Peter Fraser

Abstract

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-based assays were widely deployed during the SARS- CoV-2 pandemic for population-scale testing. High-throughput molecular diagnostic laboratories required a high degree of process automation to cope with huge testing demand, fast turn-around times and quality requirements. However, the critical step of preparing a PCR MasterMix has often been neglected by process developers and optimisers, and is largely dependent upon operator skill for the manual pipetting of reagents to construct the PCR MasterMix. Dependence on manual procedures introduces variation, inconsistency, wastage and potentially risks data integrity. To address this issue, we developed a liquid-handler based solution for automated, traceable and compliant PCR MasterMix preparation. Here, we show that a fully automated PCR MasterMix protocol can substitute manual pipetting, without affecting clinical calling, accuracy or precision. Ultimately, this method reduced cost-per-test at a high-throughput laboratory by eliminating operator-induced wastage while improving the quality of results.

Full Article:

doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.10.04.23296537