Discussion

Absorbance-based microplate assays have long been used for a variety of applications. Common uses include protein
quantification and identification assays such as Bradford and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Absorbance assays can also be used to quantify cellular viability to measure cell growth or drug susceptibility. While these assays are relatively straightforward to execute, challenges arise when requiring higher throughputs, multiple time points, and/or consistent timing across multiple plates. Automating the sample preparation, incubation, and analysis of these assays, as well as upstream steps such as cell plating and treatment, can help overcome these challenges. Here we demonstrate how the integration of a MultiWash+ Microplate Washer and EMax Plus Microplate Reader to a Biomek NXP Workstation facilitates the automated processing and analysis of absorbance assays. Plates can be moved to the washer and reader using the Biomek NXP gripper, thereby eliminating the need for user interventions. Not only did this fully automated solution achieve excellent standard curve linearity and replicate consistency across the three assays; the automation of the numerous liquid transfers greatly reduces the effort required to generate these results.