Cell Culture Process Automation from TAP

The Automation Partnership (TAP), a provider of flexible, automated solutions for the life science industry, has announced a new range of products for automated cell culture.

SelecT is a fully automated cell culture system for multiple (up to 183) cell lines grown in T-flasks and is capable of carrying out operations like capping/decapping, medium addition, pipetting, cell counting, and plating out onto 96, 384- and 1,536-well plates.

The availability of more compact robots has led to the development of a downsized version of the SelecT system called CompacT SelecT, for the medium-throughput lab in need of high-quality cells for assays. It plates out to 96- and 384-well plates.

The recently launched advanced plating module for this product automates media changes on microplates including a CO2 cell culture incubator as well as TAP’s SelFeeder liquid-handling system for plates. It allows changes of up to 10 different media and two wash solutions in standard and transport assay microplates, making it easy to rapidly generate and maintain different cell lines of consistently high quality, without manual intervention.

The Sonata is, according to the company, the first automated cell culture system for shake flasks, allowing the culture of cells in suspension as well as adherent cells. “Sonata is for bioprocess optimization,” explains Rosemary Drake, director of business development. “There is a large growth in new products like monoclonal antibodies, and Sonata takes the drudgery out of process development, otherwise it takes too long to find the best conditions. Sonata can take the place of the work of five or six people.”

Cello is a new automated system for the culture of adherent and nonadherent mammalian cells in 6-, 24-, 96-, and 384-well plates for selection of optimal clones and cell lines. It automates operations from seeding through expansion and sub-cloning and thereby decreases the time for cell-line development.

TAP’s CEO, Dr. Andy Morffew says that there are many advantages that automation with the TAP family of cell culture systems can bring to a company or academic group. “There is always an easy business case to be made for the efficiency of operating 24/7 with automation,” he explains, “but there is also the consistency that comes with smoother movements.”