High throughput strain engineering workstation

TWB high throughput strain engineering laboratory developed an original and fully integrated robotic system dedicated to automated strain engineering processes.

The workstation includes an

(StarPlus Hamilton Robotics) and a

. The liquid handler is fitted out with two pipetting tools:

• an eight independent channels arm
• a 96 channel pipetting head with a pipetting range of 1 to 1000 µL.

The carriers and accessorizes on the deck are adapted to molecular biology workflows (cooling and heating shakers, vacuum stations). The built-in includes:

• stackers for microplates,
• an automated incubator for incoming and outgoing biological samples (Thermoscientific),
• a multimode plate reader (Safas),
• a microplate centrifuge (Agilent),
• a microplate dispenser (Biotek),
• a sealer (Fortitude),
• eight independent microbiological incubators (Inheco).

A

moves the plates from the built-in to the liquid handler and to the various integrated devices. A

protects the whole workstation (HEPA filter hood).

Using this robotic tool, we develop automated unit methods for

: several DNA assembly methods, genome editing using CRISPR-CAS9, automated microbial strain transformation for

and

. In addition, we develop

we obtain: genotyping, enzymatic tests, automated fluorescence and bioluminescence measurements, growth properties, protein expression optimization by expression screening and affinity purification of tagged recombinant proteins. The tools combine the flexibility and the throughput we need to provide customized workflows for various microorganisms’ backgrounds. We focus on increasing the diversity that we can generate and handle and thus accelerate the strain construction processes. We use the workstation together with the laboratory complementary devices for different projects:

• Synthetic biology, genetic, metabolic and strain engineering
• Construction of expression and mutagenesis libraries
• Evolution of enzymes
• Protein expression