Are you a manufacturer of ELISA kits or microplate-based assays? Do you carry out high-throughput microplate assays that require several washing steps? Incorporating a microplate washer into your laboratory can increase the speed and accuracy of your experiments while reducing the number of tedious manual steps required. Microplate washers come in a range of formats, from strip plate washers to full plate washer-dispenser combinations.
You can use a microplate washer to speed up the following experiments:
- Cell culture assays
- Protein arrays
- ELISA assays
- ELISpot assays
- Multiplex assays
- Cell-based toxicity assays
- Cell-based biochemical assays
Which microplate washer should I choose?
When looking for a microplate washer, it is important to understand the key differences between the various models. You will need to ensure that you find a washing system that meets the requirements of your specific experiments. For example, the washer will need to be compatible with the format of your microplates (48, 96 or 384 wells) and the volumes you want to dispense. The number of channel heads present will affect the speed of the washing process and, therefore, must be considered. Some microplate washers come with the ability to dispense multiple buffers and reagents, which can be important for assays with multiple steps. Finally, you need to consider your current throughput and the potential for expanding your experimental workload by incorporating an automated system.
Zoom HT Microplate Washer
The Zoom HT is the fastest microplate washer on the market and is designed specifically for high-throughput applications. For example, the Zoom HT can perform a triple wash of a 96 well microplate in only 17 seconds. The unmatched speed of the Zoom HT combined with the built-in plate stacker make it the ideal solution for automating up your high-throughput microplate assays.
By adding the optional dispensing module, the Zoom HT not only washes and stacks plates, but can even coat plates and dispense reagents, which removes the need for scientists to spend all day carrying out the most time-consuming steps of ELISA assays.
The Zoom HT washer can work with 96 and 384 well microplates using the same head and is available with up to 4 different wash buffer inlets and 2 different reagents inlets. The proprietary syringe system ensures the highest level of precision and accuracy when dispensing reagents. The 3D positioning of the aspirate tips combined with constant flow rates mean that virtually no residual liquid in the wells, which is vital when adding antibody conjugates.
The table below shows the throughput of the Zoom HT microplate with dispensing module:
| Step | Throughput |
| Coat + Stack | 250 plates / hr |
| Aspirate + 3x wash + Stack | 150 plates / hr |
| Aspirate + Block + Stack | 250 plates / hr |
| Block | 360 plates / hr |
| Final Aspirate + Stack | 300 plates / hr |
The Zoom HT works as a standalone system with no PC requirements and programmes can be password protected to prevent unauthorised access.
