Restoring a Classic, the BioRAPTR 2.0

A key component of High-Throughput Screening (HTS) at NCATS, and in general, is accurate, reliable, and fast low-volume liquid dispensing into microtiter plates.  Options for flexible and high-quality dispensers that are both user and automation friendly have historically been limited, and we have relied heavily on the BioRAPTR dispensers that were initially supported through Aurora Discovery followed by Beckman Coulter, until their eventual removal from the market.  Given our heavy investment in these dispensers and their ubiquitous adoption across multiple laboratories, the NCATS automation team has maintained over 20 BioRAPTR dispensers in-house down to the component level for the majority of the last decade.  These dispensers are integrated onto multiple robotic platforms and used for benchtop assay optimization and validation by our biologists daily.  The ability to calibrate the 4-valve/tip dispense heads quickly and create custom multi-tip protocols on a well-level as well as dispense a 1536-well microtiter plate in less than a few minutes is essential to our HTS operations.  We have also integrated custom features such as droplet detection, designed and built in-house to add further dependability. Due to limited options for dispenser replacements that are equivalent to the BioRAPTR, NCATS invested time into upgrading the existing dispensers from Windows XP to Windows 10 to improve security as well as improve functionality by moving away from an unsupported operating system.  We also formed a collaboration with Let’s Go Robotics (LGR) to update and refurbish the existing BioRAPTR models, ensuring that we maintain the features that have made them our primary dispensers for over a decade, while also adding new capabilities to enhance their already outstanding performance.  This work will help to ensure that the daily bench and automated system operations using these dispensers will continue uninterrupted while also making improvements for future integrations.