LabVIEW Creates a High-Throughput Liquid Handling System

Author(s):
Gregory Cala - Data Science Automation

Industry:
Life Science

Products:
PXI/CompactPCI, Motion Control, LabVIEW

The Challenge:
Developing a high-throughput liquid handling system that applies sample solutions to 20 microscope slides at a rate of one slide per second.

The Solution:
Creating a flexible, PC-based slide coating system using a National Instruments PCI-7344 motion control board and an NI NuDrive 2SX-411 motor drive to handle X-Y motion as well as system digital and analog output, NI-VISA drivers to interact with third-party serial equipment, and LabVIEW 6.0.2 to create reliable, intuitive, and modular control software.

Improving Cost and Speed
Proteomics technology plays a vital role in biomedical diagnosis and therapy - a role forecast to grow significantly in coming years. Despite a flurry of development, there exists a major need for a rapid and low-cost means of measuring the activity of enzymes. Enzymes are the proteins on which most drugs are designed to act and the clinical markers of much disease. Our company, Morewood Molecular Sciences, Inc., has developed a novel means of examining enzyme activity, improving on the speed and cost of existing methods.
At the heart of Morewood’s breakthrough technology sits a unique and cost-effective liquid handling system that applies sample solutions to microscope slides.

To prototype this liquid handling system, we approached a company called Data Science Automation to develop a fully automated and integrated solution meeting the following requirements:

• Low-cost, fully documented solution incorporating current technologies and off-the-shelf components
• System throughput of up to twenty slides at a rate of one slide per second
• Serial control of a third-party pump controller controlling multiple syringe pumps
• Control of a third-party spray nozzle and a third-party gas flow control valve via analog output
• Control of multiple multi-port valves and a fan via digital output
• Coordinated control of the motion of an X-Y stage
• Professional-looking, intuitive sequence editing and execution software, allowing an operator to create, save, and run a variety of different sequences, as well as monitor their execution time and log their results

Controlled Motion
The basic operation of the system defined by Morewood included withdrawing an operator-specified solution into a syringe pump (pump and valve control), directing the flow of solution to a spray nozzle (valve control), engaging the nozzle (nozzle control), engaging gas flow (gas flow valve control); then moving the slides to be coated in a zigzag pattern underneath the nozzle (motion control). We had to define in a sequence the type, rate, and volume of the solution used, as well as the order of events.

We accomplished controlled motion of the X-Y stages quickly and easily using well-integrated motion tools from National Instruments. We selected, easily configured, and tested the NI PCI-7344 motion controller using NI Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) version 2.1. Because of the large motors used on the project, we needed a high-powered motor drive, so we chose National Instruments NuDrive 2SX-411 two-axis motor drive, and the 68M-50F bulkhead cable adapter, for easy connectivity. We then created motion configuration and execution virtual instruments in LabVIEW using NI FlexMotion version 5.1.

The PCI-7344 motion controller card also included analog and digital outputs, which we use to control the spray nozzle, the gas flow valve, the multi-port solenoid valves, and the fan. We facilitated the wiring of inputs to each of these components with NI SCB-68 digital I/O connector block and the UMI-7764 motion interface. The MCA-7724 motion axis router allowed for the simultaneous connection of the NuDrive and the UMI-7764 to the single PCI-7344 motion I/O port. As was the case previously, the FlexMotion software made access of each analog and digital output a simpleand reliable operation, reducing overall development time and cost.

Flexibility with LabVIEW
We achieved serial control of the pump controller using NI MAX to configure the COM1 port of the PC, and then by using NI-VISA drivers and resource names to quickly and easily implement a LabVIEW driver capable of executing the full command set of the instrument.

Finally, we integrated each component of the system and brought them together under a master control application built in LabVIEW. This incorporated professional, intuitive user interfaces to allow direct operator control of each component in the system, as well as the ability to load, save, and edit sequences defining the nature and order of the process run. Morewood’s key members received basic LabVIEW training and comprehensive application documentation via Certified NI LabVIEW Basics I and II classes offered at DSA. Through these NI LabVIEW training courses, Morewood could explore the functionality of their code easily and modify it if necessary.

Upon completion of the project using NI products, Morewood Molecular Services had a fully-integrated, fully-automated liquid handling solution capable of greater throughput than that specified. In addition, our solution harnessed the power of the PC as well as the cost efficiency of off-the-shelf components. Through the marriage of Data Science Automation’s engineering expertise and NI’s well-integrated, well-supported hardware and software tools, we achieved current, scaleable technology to match our novel microfluidics method.

For more information, contact:

Gregory Cala, Ph.D.

Vice President

Operations Data Science Automation, Inc.

400 Southpointe Blvd., Ste. 210

Cononsburg, PA 15317

Tel: (724) 745-8400

Fax: (724) 745-8461

E-mail: gcc@dsautomation.com

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