(1261-B) Developing Analytical Methods on the Hamilton Vantage 2.0

Abstract: Each assay in the Tobacco Exposure Biomarkers Laboratory (TEBL) is performed using both bench chemistry and the utilization of laboratory automation, which limits human error, increases sample throughput, and allows for distinctly accurate data. Over the last year TEBL has replaced older automation equipment with Hamilton Vantage 2.0 systems that have many additional technical features that previous automation equipment lacked. To fully leverage this state-of-the-art technology, we developed new methods that customize code from existing programming libraries.
Many of the challenges to laboratory efficiency are simple in nature, such as having limited walkaway opportunity while using instrumentation for fear of errors and loss of sample. Updated dialog boxes, or “pop-up” windows, timers, and colored lights on the Vantage 2.0 systems allow an analyst this freedom while maintaining the integrity of the processes at hand. When these errors do occur, error recovery utilizing dialog boxes can instruct even a novice analyst how to carefully recover – saving samples, time, and the health of the instrument. Inherent features of the instrument, specifically regarding its single-well channels, such as utilizing travel lanes, position-checking, and jet-part aspiration saves valuable time and guards against cross-contamination and simple errors. The majority of analytical assays cannot afford large periods of downtime; as such, employing these techniques on such robust systems ensures our analysts that they can rely on the technologies employed throughout the laboratory.