Design and Application of a High-Throughput Sample Processing Module Based on Magnetic Beads

One of key challenges in diagnosis of infectious diseases is collecting a large quantity of purified nucleic acids from pathogens immediately. To address this challenge, a high-throughput magnetic separation module and a heating and vibrating module were developed to optimize the operation of biological sample preparation (like nucleic acid extraction) on our home-built liquid handing system. Both of the two modules have 4 working locations for Biomolecular Screening (BS) standard lab-ware, and three functions (magnetic separation, heating and vibrating) were elaborately integrated into the two modules. Each module has its own core control circuit and a unique interface port containing a 24 V DC power supply connector and a CAN bus communication connector. When equipping with the two modules, the home-built liquid handing system transformed into an integrated automatic sample preparation workstation. Performance evaluations were carried out on the two modules and finally a nucleic acid extraction of human's whole blood was carried out on the workstation. Results showed that the two modules could cooperate well with the liquid handing system, and the workstation exhibited its ability for high-throughput sample preparation.