A Novel Method to Gently Mix and Uniformly Suspend Particulates for Automated Assays

The SpinVessel system provides a methodology using pulsed radial flow to gently mix and uniformly suspend particulates (cells, magnetic beads, silica beads, and microcarrier beads) for automated assays. SpinVessels are well suited for aliquoting on robotic liquid handlers and with robotic reagent dispensers, as well as manually. The SpinVessel system combines two critical features: (1) special internal side fins and projections in the bottom of the vessels and (2) an instrument that quickly spins the vessels and repeatedly reverses the spin direction. This rapid reversing motion sends multiple pulses of fluid up the side walls of the SpinVessel, creating a circular radial flow pattern. We tested five different particulates and six different SpinVessels with volume capacities varying from 50 mL to 1200 mL. SpinVessels are compatible with either single-, 8-, 12-, 96-, or 384-channel pipettors or with siphon tubing on robotic reagent dispensers. Experiments have demonstrated high viability of cells and undamaged morphology of microcarrier beads even after hours of constant agitation. The uniformity of aliquots collected at various vertical depths and horizontally across the SpinVessels demonstrated that cells, magnetic beads, and silica beads were uniformly suspended throughout the height and breadth of the SpinVessels, and uniformity of samples was consistent from the beginning to the end of the aliquoting procedure. Only 5 min of mixing is required to resuspend settled particulates. This novel mixing methodology has many applications in laboratory automation where particulate aliquot uniformity and/or particulate integrity are important to automating assays.