Product News: Tecan and QIAGEN collaborate to automate pre-analytical processing of whole blood samples
21 Jan 2021
Tecan has launched the Fluent
® Mix and Pierce Workstation to provide end-to-end automation for whole blood pipetting in clinical environments. This newly developed instrument configuration is intended to standardize pre-analytical sample handling and mixing, and is part of an ongoing collaboration with QIAGEN to optimize sample preparation for latent tuberculosis (TB) testing with the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus assay.
The Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation provides a fully automated workflow, using a Flexible Channel Arm™ equipped with Tecan Piercing Tips™ to aliquot whole blood samples directly from vacuum blood collection tubes or septum-capped tubes – without the need for manual lid removal. This reduces the risk of laboratory staff coming into contact with infectious materials, and saves valuable time when performing tube-to-tube or tube-to-plate transfers and whole blood assays. The workstation also features the newly developed Tecan Tube Rotator™ – which provides 360-degree tube mixing to maintain whole blood samples in suspension without hemolysis – and includes barcode scanning for both primary and secondary tubes to ensure full process traceability for clinical settings.