Liquid class optimization: a beginner's guide
What it actually means to optimize a liquid class, why defaults are only a starting point, and the precision-then-trueness loop that turns a guess into a trustworthy transfer.
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Liquid class optimization
How to turn a starting liquid class into a trustworthy one: the precision-then-trueness mental model, the step-by-step tuning loop, reading pipetting symptoms, recipes for difficult liquids, and verifying and locking in the result.
Fundamentals Fundamentals Choosing a starting liquid class: liquid families and their synonyms
The fastest new class starts from an existing one for a similar liquid. How to group liquids into families and pick the closest predefined class to adapt.
2 min readBest practices How to optimize a liquid class, step by step
A practical, repeatable procedure for tuning a liquid class: start close, run a real transfer, change one knob at a time, then measure and correct until it holds.
5 min read
Learning path
Liquid classes
Everything about defining, calibrating, and maintaining a liquid class, from first principles through validation, versioning, and transfer across instruments.
Fundamentals What is a liquid class, and why it decides your pipetting accuracy
A liquid class is the parameter set that tells an automated liquid handler how to aspirate and dispense a specific liquid. Here is what lives inside one and why it matters.
2 min readFundamentals Liquid class principles: mechanisms, liquid types, and dispense functions
A working mental model for liquid classes: the transfer mechanism you are on, the three liquid types, and the wet, free, and mix dispenses that shape every parameter.
4 min readFundamentals The physics behind a liquid class: the properties that decide your parameters
Viscosity, density, surface tension, contact angle, vapor pressure and more each push specific liquid-class parameters. A tour of the properties that make a class.
2 min read
Learning path
Liquid handling foundations
The concepts every automation scientist needs first: when to automate, how accuracy is measured, the physics under every transfer, and the standards that define good.
Fundamentals When to automate: manual, semi-automated, or full automation
More automation is not always the answer. A practical way to weigh sample count, throughput, reproducibility, dead volume, labor, and safety before you commit.
2 min readFundamentals What is a liquid class, and why it decides your pipetting accuracy
A liquid class is the parameter set that tells an automated liquid handler how to aspirate and dispense a specific liquid. Here is what lives inside one and why it matters.
2 min readFundamentals Accuracy vs precision in pipetting, and which parameters fix each
A biased class and a noisy class fail in different ways and call for different fixes. How to tell accuracy from precision and map each to specific liquid-class settings.
3 min read
Learning path
PCR on a liquid handler
From the reaction itself to automating the whole bench: how PCR and qPCR work, then distributing master mix evenly, preparing input by normalization and dilution, assembling reactions from RT to multiplex, running specialized and miniaturized formats, cleaning up product, and keeping amplicon carryover out of every plate.
Fundamentals PCR explained: how the chain reaction amplifies DNA
The polymerase chain reaction copies a chosen stretch of DNA a billionfold using three temperatures on repeat. The mechanism, the ingredients, and why the timing matters.
5 min readFundamentals qPCR explained: real-time detection and the Cq value
Real-time PCR measures amplification as it happens and reads quantity from the exponential phase. How the fluorescence, the curve, and the Cq value actually work.
5 min readApplications Automating PCR and qPCR setup: master mix, small volumes, no cross-contamination
Setting up PCR plates by hand is tedious and error prone. The liquid-class settings that protect ratio fidelity at a few microliters and keep amplicon out.
5 min read
Reference
Daily life in the lab
Practical, hands-on guidance for the people running the deck: porting protocols, everyday techniques, in-run checks, troubleshooting, and the upkeep that keeps results trustworthy.
Best practices Porting a manual bench protocol to a liquid handler: what changes when the pipette is a robot
A handheld protocol is full of tacit technique your hand does without thinking. Automating it means turning that feel into explicit, testable parameters.
6 min readTechnique Writing a liquid handling protocol: code vs visual designers
A protocol is where liquid classes meet the deck. Scripted Python and visual designers each have strengths for reproducibility and reuse, and the class fits into both.
2 min readTechnique Choosing tips for your liquid class: geometry, coatings, and fit
Tip volume range, filtered, conductive, wide-bore, and low-retention options all change how a liquid behaves. Why the tip is part of the class, not an accessory.
2 min read
All articles
Fundamentals PCR explained: how the chain reaction amplifies DNA
The polymerase chain reaction copies a chosen stretch of DNA a billionfold using three temperatures on repeat. The mechanism, the ingredients, and why the timing matters.
5 min readFundamentals qPCR explained: real-time detection and the Cq value
Real-time PCR measures amplification as it happens and reads quantity from the exponential phase. How the fluorescence, the curve, and the Cq value actually work.
5 min readBest practices Preventing amplicon carryover in automated PCR
A PCR amplifies its own contamination. The deck zoning, one-way workflow, tip strategy, and enzymatic guards that keep yesterday's product out of today's plate.
5 min readTechnique Automated post-PCR cleanup: enzymatic and bead
After amplification you have product mixed with primers, enzyme, and dNTPs. The two ways to clean it up on a deck, and why post-PCR handling needs its own zone.
4 min readTechnique Miniaturizing PCR to 384 and 1536 wells
Shrinking a reaction saves reagent and scales throughput, but a class tuned at 10 microliters fails at 1. The evaporation, dispensing, and edge effects that miniaturization exposes.
5 min readApplications Automating colony PCR screening
Screening hundreds of colonies is high-throughput, low-precision work. Where a colony PCR workflow can relax and where it still cannot cut corners.
5 min readApplications Automating digital PCR (dPCR) setup
Digital PCR counts molecules by partitioning a reaction thousands of ways. Why that makes the setup pipetting unusually unforgiving, and how to meet the bar.
5 min readApplications Automating reverse transcription and RT-qPCR setup
RNA is fragile and the RT step sets the ceiling on everything downstream. The cold-chain, RNase, and one-step versus two-step choices that automation has to respect.
5 min readApplications Multiplex PCR: pooling and balancing primer sets on a liquid handler
A multiplex works only if no primer pair crowds out the rest. The many small oligo transfers and ratio balancing that building a pool actually requires.
4 min readApplications Building qPCR standard curves by automated serial dilution
A standard curve is only as good as its dilutions. How log-scale error propagates, and the pipetting discipline that keeps a curve linear and efficient.
4 min readApplications Normalizing nucleic acid input before PCR
Equal template mass per well is what makes results comparable. The per-well dilution math and the small-volume transfers that make normalization real.
5 min readApplications Preparing and distributing PCR master mix at scale
The batch math, dead volume, and viscosity handling that keep the first well and the last well of a plate carrying the same reaction.
5 min readBest practices Auto-tuning liquid classes: one knob at a time, DoE, or Bayesian
Manual one-knob tuning is reliable and slow. Design of experiments and Bayesian optimization converge faster, and scripting makes the deck tune overnight.
3 min readBest practices Building a correction curve on a budget
Balances and photometric kits are the gold standard and cost a fortune. What each method buys you, and where a plate reader and dye are good enough.
3 min readCompliance A correction curve edit is a new version
Changing a curve changes how the instrument behaves, so it is a change-controlled event. Treat every curve edit as versioned, attributable, and reversible.
3 min readTechnique Correction curves for viscous and volatile liquids
Hard liquids need a bigger correction and a bendier curve, but only after the flow rate and technique are right. Order the fixes correctly.
3 min readTechnique Diagnosing pipetting problems: a symptom-to-fix guide
Droplets, bubbles, foam, splashing, and first-dispense outliers each point at a specific parameter. Read the symptom, reach for the right knob, and stop guessing.
5 min readInstruments Does tip type change your correction curve?
Clear, black, filtered, and unfiltered tips of the same geometry share a liquid class and its curve. The exception forcing conductive tips is level detection.
3 min readInstruments How different platforms model correction curves
Hamilton, Tecan, Opentrons, and Beckman all correct delivered volume, exposed as points, slope and offset, or tuples. One idea, different surfaces.
3 min readTechnique The correction curve mistake everyone makes
Editing the point at your target volume will not pin that dispense. A correction curve is interpolated across plunger travel, as multi-dispense makes clear.
4 min readFundamentals The math behind correction curves: slope, offset, and subclasses
Most correction curves are a straight line, Y equals aX plus b. Knowing the slope and offset, and why one line rarely fits the whole range, speeds tuning.
3 min readBest practices Verifying a correction curve after you set it
Fitting a curve is not the end. A confirmation run on a fresh setup proves it holds, and one common technique quietly cancels the curve.
3 min readTechnique What a correction curve cannot fix
A correction curve moves the average onto target. It does nothing for scatter, and reaching for it when the real problem is spread wastes hours.
3 min readTechnique When a correction curve is the wrong tool
At low volumes into empty wells, no correction curve saves an unreliable transfer. The fix is tip size, taught geometry, and blowout, not curve points.
3 min readInstruments Why a correction curve will not transfer between robots
Copy a correction curve to another instrument and it is usually wrong on arrival. Why the numbers are machine-specific, and what would make them portable.
3 min readBest practices How to optimize a liquid class, step by step
A practical, repeatable procedure for tuning a liquid class: start close, run a real transfer, change one knob at a time, then measure and correct until it holds.
5 min readResearch The self-driving lab and the reproducibility promise
Four papers trace the self-driving lab from a 2019 landmark to today's biology, optimization, and safety work. The through-line is reproducibility, and its unfinished edges.
5 min readFundamentals Liquid class optimization: a beginner's guide
What it actually means to optimize a liquid class, why defaults are only a starting point, and the precision-then-trueness loop that turns a guess into a trustworthy transfer.
5 min readResearch From protocol text to executable method: what the LLM papers really solve
Three recent papers turn human-written protocols into machine-executable methods. The interesting part is not the language model, it is how they check the output.
5 min readBest practices How to measure a transfer: photometric, fluorometric, gravimetric
You cannot trust a volume you have not measured. The three quantitative methods, photometric, fluorometric, and gravimetric, and when each is the right tool.
2 min readResearch Teaching a machine to pipette: two papers on the act and the choreography
One paper puts a manual pipette in a robot's hand; another treats a full run as a routing problem. Together they show automation is two problems, not one.
4 min readResearch Reading a liquid from how it moves: machine learning at the pinch-off
A 2025 paper shows a droplet's shape as it breaks off carries enough information to predict viscosity and surface tension. Here is what that means for anyone tuning a class.
4 min readFundamentals When to automate: manual, semi-automated, or full automation
More automation is not always the answer. A practical way to weigh sample count, throughput, reproducibility, dead volume, labor, and safety before you commit.
2 min readBest practices Compliance and audit readiness for automated liquid handling
In regulated labs a transfer is not done until it is documented. Audit trails, electronic signatures, and change control for methods and the liquid classes behind them.
1 min readBest practices Reproducibility across labs: why sharing the definition is not the same as sharing the result
Two labs can run the identical liquid class and get different volumes. Here is what a shared definition leaves out, and how to close the gap.
3 min readInstruments Interoperability and SiLA: getting instruments from different vendors to speak one language
A modern lab mixes instruments from many vendors. Standards like SiLA and a vendor-neutral view of liquid classes are how they cooperate instead of siloing.
3 min readBest practices A viscous-liquid tuning checklist you can work top to bottom
When a thick liquid short-fills, tune in order rather than at random. An ordered checklist from flow rate to gravimetric proof, and why the order matters.
4 min readTechnique Automating cell culture: gentle liquid handling for living samples
Cells are not just another liquid. Media changes and washes need low shear and careful aspiration heights so the monolayer or pellet survives the transfer.
2 min readTechnique From bench habit to liquid class: translating manual technique
A skilled technician's hands hold a lot of tacit knowledge about hard liquids. Each gesture maps to a liquid class parameter, and mapping it is how the skill survives automation.
4 min readFundamentals AI in the automated lab: why liquid classes are the ground truth
AI can draft a protocol from a sentence, but it cannot invent how a liquid behaves in a tip. Why validated, machine-readable liquid classes keep automated intelligence honest.
2 min readCompliance Change control for liquid classes: how a new version gets reviewed and approved
Changing a calibration that produces reported data is a governed act, not a quick edit. Here is a sane change-control flow for liquid classes.
3 min readTechnique Bubbles, foam, and short fills: air in viscous aspiration
Thick liquids trap air on the way into the tip. The bubble reads as volume you never drew, so the dispense is short and the next aspiration is wrong too.
4 min readBest practices Why cutting pipette tips is a false economy
Snipping the end off a tip to move a viscous liquid is a common bench hack. It trades a known cost you can see for hidden costs you cannot, and it has no place on an automated deck.
4 min readBest practices Dilute the stock or tune the class? Choosing the cheaper fight
The usual advice for a viscous liquid is to dilute it first. Dilution is a real strategy with a real cost, and sometimes tuning the class is the honest choice.
4 min readApplications Pipetting glycerol from 50 to 100 percent: a viscosity ladder
Glycerol is not one liquid. Its viscosity climbs steeply with concentration, so the settings that work at 50 percent are wrong at 80 and useless at 100.
4 min readTechnique Plate reformatting: moving a protocol between 96- and 384-well densities
Consolidating four 96-well plates into one 384, or expanding back out. What changes for your liquid class when the well shrinks and the map interleaves.
5 min readTechnique Reverse pipetting, translated for an automated deck
The manual second-stop trick for viscous liquids has a direct equivalent on a liquid handler. Here is how over-aspiration and dispense mode reproduce it.
4 min readTechnique Cherry-picking and hit-picking: variable transfers driven by a pick list
Cherry-picking moves a sparse, data-driven set of wells rather than a whole plate. The map changes every run; the liquid class should not.
5 min readTechnique Transferring a liquid class between instruments and sites without starting over
A calibration is tied to the hardware it was built on. Here is how to move a liquid class to another instrument or lab and prove it still delivers.
3 min readTechnique How to pipette viscous liquids without losing volume
Glycerol, DMSO, and detergents defeat default settings. A practical guide to flow rates, delays, and air gaps for accurate automated handling of viscous liquids.
1 min readBest practices Verifying and locking in an optimized liquid class
How to prove an optimized class is right, how many replicates to run, precision before trueness, and how to freeze and document it so the tuning is not lost.
5 min readTechnique Optimizing liquid classes for difficult liquids
Viscous, volatile, foaming, and low-cohesion liquids each need a different set of parameter moves. Starting recipes by liquid family, and why each one works.
5 min readBest practices Dry-running a protocol: simulation before the deck
Most protocol failures are catchable before the robot moves. How simulation and deck visualization surface collisions, shortfalls, and labware mistakes offline.
1 min readApplications Handling blood, plasma, and serum: films, clots, and unreliable surfaces
Biological fluids clot, foam from protein, and coat the tip in a film that fools level detection. What a class for whole blood or serum has to account for.
6 min readApplications Sample prep for LC-MS/MS: precise transfers where small volumes decide the result
Mass spec quantitation is only as good as the standards and dilutions feeding it. Here is how to keep low-volume transfers accurate for LC-MS/MS.
3 min readInstruments Pressure sensors and real-time monitoring: catching a bad aspiration as it happens
A pressure trace turns pipetting from a blind command into an observed event, letting a liquid handler flag a clot, a bubble, or an empty well mid-run.
3 min readFundamentals Choosing a starting liquid class: liquid families and their synonyms
The fastest new class starts from an existing one for a similar liquid. How to group liquids into families and pick the closest predefined class to adapt.
2 min readInstruments Moving labware on the deck: grippers, plate handlers, and collisions
Before a tip touches liquid, something has to move the plate. How gripper arms relocate labware, and why deck geometry and collisions decide whether it works.
3 min readBest practices In-line volume verification: checking the run, not just the class
Validating a class proves it worked once. In-line verification checks volumes during the run itself, catching the failures offline testing never sees.
2 min readBest practices Washable versus disposable tips: the contamination and cost trade-off
Fixed steel tips you wash, or disposable tips you throw away. The choice shapes carryover risk, cost per run, and how your liquid class has to behave.
5 min readTechnique Choosing tips for your liquid class: geometry, coatings, and fit
Tip volume range, filtered, conductive, wide-bore, and low-retention options all change how a liquid behaves. Why the tip is part of the class, not an accessory.
2 min readInstruments Preventive maintenance for syringe pumps: a three-point check that prevents bad data
The syringe pump is where a liquid handler turns motion into volume. A simple routine of seals, valves, and system liquid keeps it honest.
3 min readTechnique Air gaps and blowout: the small settings that stop dripping and carryover
Air gaps and blowout volume are the most misunderstood liquid class parameters. What each one does, when to use it, and how they prevent dripping and carryover.
2 min readBest practices Multi-dispensing done right
Aliquoting one aspiration into many wells is fast but tricky. When to use it, why to discard the first and last aliquots, and how to correct a step-down volume series.
2 min readFundamentals Accuracy vs precision in pipetting, and which parameters fix each
A biased class and a noisy class fail in different ways and call for different fixes. How to tell accuracy from precision and map each to specific liquid-class settings.
3 min readBest practices Trueness, precision, and the ISO vocabulary
The industry standardized what accuracy means for liquid handlers. Trueness, precision, and accuracy defined, the percent-error and percent-CV formulas, and the ISO documents behind them.
2 min readTechnique Ultra-low-volume and non-contact dispensing: where classic liquid classes stop
Below a microliter, air-displacement classes run out of room. Non-contact and acoustic dispensing change the parameters, the physics, and how you calibrate.
6 min readInstruments Automation architecture: centralized method services versus per-instrument silos
The architecture of an automated lab is decided early and lived with. Monolithic vs modular, centralized vs distributed, and why where your liquid classes live is a structural choice too.
3 min readInstruments Device drivers: the control-layer problem behind method portability
Drivers are the software that lets a scheduler control an instrument, and they are notoriously hard. Why they matter, why they break, and how the method layer inherits their fragility.
3 min readTechnique Correction curves, explained
A correction curve maps target volume to what the instrument must aim for, so the delivered volume is right across the whole range and not just at one point.
2 min readTechnique Writing a liquid handling protocol: code vs visual designers
A protocol is where liquid classes meet the deck. Scripted Python and visual designers each have strengths for reproducibility and reuse, and the class fits into both.
2 min readApplications Automating ELISA: the liquid-handling settings that protect reproducibility
ELISA lives or dies on even, gentle, well-timed liquid handling. Here are the dispense, wash, and reagent-addition settings that keep plates consistent.
3 min readCompliance Data integrity for pipetting runs: what 21 CFR Part 11 and GxP actually ask for
A plain-language guide to attributable, legible, contemporaneous records for automated liquid handling, and why your liquid class is part of the audit trail.
4 min readApplications Automating PCR and qPCR setup: master mix, small volumes, no cross-contamination
Setting up PCR plates by hand is tedious and error prone. The liquid-class settings that protect ratio fidelity at a few microliters and keep amplicon out.
5 min readInstruments Types of liquid handlers: heads, decks, and dispensing mechanisms
Stamping versus independent-channel heads, the deck as both grid and control surface, and the acoustic, peristaltic, and plate-washing devices that round out a lab.
3 min readTechnique Environmental drift: how the room changes your pipetting
Temperature, humidity, air pressure and vibration all shift how a liquid behaves. Why you develop classes at normal lab conditions, record them, and re-check on change.
1 min readTechnique Touch-off: shedding the last drop against the well
A hanging droplet is delivered volume that never left the tip. How a touch-off against the well wall finishes a dispense, and when it helps or hurts.
2 min readBest practices The real cost of a miscalibrated liquid class: rework, reagents, and risk
A slightly wrong liquid class rarely fails loudly. It leaks cost through wasted reagents, repeated runs, and decisions made on quietly bad data.
3 min readInstruments The lab automation device landscape: the peripherals around the liquid handler
The liquid handler shares a workcell with readers, thermocyclers, movers, and sealers. A tour of the device landscape and why each peripheral changes the sample your liquid class assumes.
2 min readBest practices Build vs. buy: should you write your own liquid classes or adopt a shared catalog?
Every lab decides whether to develop liquid classes in-house or start from a shared catalog. Here is an honest look at the real costs of each.
3 min readBest practices Porting a manual bench protocol to a liquid handler: what changes when the pipette is a robot
A handheld protocol is full of tacit technique your hand does without thinking. Automating it means turning that feel into explicit, testable parameters.
6 min readFundamentals The physics behind a liquid class: the properties that decide your parameters
Viscosity, density, surface tension, contact angle, vapor pressure and more each push specific liquid-class parameters. A tour of the properties that make a class.
2 min readBest practices Connecting a liquid handler to a LIMS: where classes meet sample data
A liquid handler moves samples; a LIMS knows what they are. Linking the two turns a worklist into a tracked result rather than a plate of anonymous wells.
2 min readFundamentals Open and shareable liquid handling: reproducibility beyond your own lab
A result no one else can reproduce is a fragile result. Why open protocols and shared, inspectable liquid classes make automated science more reproducible.
1 min readFundamentals Air displacement, positive displacement, and the role of system liquid
Disposable tips with an air cushion or fixed tips backed by system liquid: the two fluidic architectures behind liquid handlers, and how each shapes your classes.
2 min readApplications Concentration normalization: turning a plate of readings into equal concentrations
Normalization takes a plate of unequal concentrations to a common target. Variable volumes, one class, and a minimum-transfer floor that decides feasibility.
4 min readFundamentals Well geometry and the meniscus: why one class behaves differently across plates
Flat, round, V, and conical wells hold liquid differently. The same class can miss when the well shape changes the surface, the depth, and the dead volume.
6 min readTechnique Pipetting low volumes on large channels
Dispensing 0.5 to 20 microliters on 1000 microliter channels is where errors hide. Smaller tips, surface dispensing, and turning off liquid following keep it honest.
2 min readApplications Compound management in DMSO: hygroscopic, viscous, and unforgiving
DMSO is the backbone solvent of compound libraries and one of the hardest liquids to pipette well. Viscosity, water uptake, and freeze-thaw all move the target.
5 min readBest practices Barcode tracking and sample identity in an automated run
Automation only scales if the robot knows which sample is which. How barcodes, autoloaders, and positional tracking keep identity attached to every well.
2 min readFundamentals Liquid class principles: mechanisms, liquid types, and dispense functions
A working mental model for liquid classes: the transfer mechanism you are on, the three liquid types, and the wet, free, and mix dispenses that shape every parameter.
4 min readInstruments Pump and syringe selection: how the fluidic path caps your liquid class
Syringe size sets the trade between volume range and resolution, and the pump and tubing bound what any liquid class can achieve. A primer for anyone specifying a system.
2 min readFundamentals Reading the parameters: a vendor-neutral liquid-class glossary
Flow rate, air transport volume, blowout, swap speed, settling time and more, decoded, with the names each vendor uses so a class reads the same everywhere.
2 min readFundamentals Porting a method across vendors: what a liquid class carries
Moving a protocol between Opentrons, Hamilton, and Tecan is rarely copy-and-paste. Which parts of a liquid class translate, which must be re-tuned, and how to plan the move.
2 min readApplications Magnetic-bead cleanup: aspirating around the pellet without losing it
SPRI and magnetic-bead cleanups live or die on supernatant removal. The class settings that clear liquid off an engaged pellet without carrying beads away.
5 min readBest practices Troubleshooting a liquid handler: reading symptoms back to parameters
Most pipetting faults show before you measure. Read dripping, bubbles, short fills, and carryover back to the property and the one parameter that fixes each.
6 min readTechnique Pipetting detergents and surfactants: foam, wetting, and the settings that tame them
Detergents wet everything, foam at the slightest agitation, and creep up the tip. The class settings that keep low-surface-tension liquids under control.
5 min readTechnique Dispense modes: free, contact-wet, and contact-dry, and when to use each
Whether the tip free-falls the liquid, touches a wet well, or touches a dry surface changes accuracy, contamination risk, and speed. A practical guide to the three modes.
2 min readTechnique Tip waste and disposal: the unglamorous end of a transfer
A transfer is not finished until the tip is gone. How tip ejection and waste routines fail quietly, and why they matter to carryover and run reliability.
2 min readBest practices Validating a liquid class: gravimetric calibration, step by step
A liquid class is a hypothesis until you weigh it. How to verify accuracy and precision gravimetrically, adjust with a calibration curve, and re-check over time.
2 min readBest practices Versioning liquid classes: why provenance beats a shared drive
Undocumented parameter tweaks are how methods silently drift. How versioning and provenance turn liquid classes into trustworthy, auditable lab assets.
1 min readInstruments Anatomy of a workcell: the integrated system your liquid classes run inside
A workcell turns a set of instruments into one system. Its parts, the scheduler that coordinates them, and where the method layer sits once the handler is one device among many.
3 min readInstruments Labware definitions and deck layout: the accuracy factors you set once
An instrument only knows the deck you describe to it. Why accurate labware definitions and offsets underpin correct heights, level detection, and every transfer on top.
1 min readFundamentals What is a liquid class, and why it decides your pipetting accuracy
A liquid class is the parameter set that tells an automated liquid handler how to aspirate and dispense a specific liquid. Here is what lives inside one and why it matters.
2 min readBest practices The standards behind automated liquid handling: ISO 8655, ANSI/SLAS, and why they matter
A tour of the standards that make pipetting comparable across labs and instruments, from volumetric accuracy to the microplate footprint your deck depends on.
3 min readBest practices From default to validated: the liquid class development workflow
A five-step routine for building a class: understand the liquid, start from a predefined class, inspect, change one parameter at a time, then verify with a correction curve.
2 min readTechnique Liquid level detection: how the tip knows where the surface is
Capacitive and pressure-based level detection let a liquid handler follow the meniscus, submerge just enough, and catch clots or empty wells. Here is how each works.
2 min readApplications NGS library prep on a liquid handler: small volumes, tight ratios, unforgiving error budgets
Library prep stacks dozens of small, ratio-sensitive transfers. Here is how to automate it without letting pipetting error compound into failed libraries.
3 min readBest practices Serial dilution without carryover
Serial dilutions multiply small errors and invite carryover. Fresh tips, thorough mixing, sensible mix volumes, and dropping the over-aspirate keep a series honest.
2 min readBest practices When your automation scientist leaves: capturing liquid-class knowledge before it walks out
The hardest-won pipetting knowledge lives in one person's head. How to capture liquid-class expertise as engineering, so a resignation is not a reset.
4 min readCompliance Qualifying a liquid class for a regulated lab: IQ, OQ, and PQ in plain terms
Installation, operational, and performance qualification explained for liquid handling, and how a validated liquid class fits into the evidence you keep.
3 min readInstruments Pipetting on 96- and 384-channel heads: full, partial, and per-channel
A 96-channel head is not 96 independent pipettes. What changes when one plunger drives many tips, and how partial pickup and per-channel work differ.
3 min read