QPix® 420 Microbial Colony Picker

The QPix® 420 Microbial Colony Picker is a robust, high-throughput automated system designed to replace manual workflows and scale microbial screening with greater precision and walkaway time. As a flexible, upgradeable workhorse within the QPix portfolio, it supports advanced multi-modal imaging, diverse screening applications, and seamless future integration into automated robotic workflows. The system significantly reduces laboratory labor and time while tracking comprehensive data from start to finish to ensure complete reproducibility.

Target Applications

• Protein Engineering & Mutation Screening: Accelerates the throughput of screened variants by allowing users to navigate richer genetic libraries and rapidly select mutants with desired traits.

• Molecular Cloning & Plasmid Production: Automates the laborious and repetitive processes of cell spreading, plating, streaking, and colony recovery to eliminate human error and speed up downstream analysis.

• Microbial Strain Engineering: Identifies and selects high-producing engineered microorganisms from large libraries using customizable phenotypic selection parameters.

• Antibody Discovery & Phage Display: Increases the screening throughput of antigen-antibody interactions to optimize the identification of high-affinity binders.

• Gene Editing (CRISPR/Cas9): Enables large-scale library management, pooled library picking, and hit picking into high-throughput microtiter plate screening workflows.

Key Capabilities & System Advantages

• High-Throughput Automation & Walkaway Time: Screens and picks up to 3,000 colonies per hour with greater than 95% picking accuracy. The system increases laboratory autonomy by handling up to 12 standard 96-well destination plates before requiring manual intervention.

• Multi-Modal Imaging guided Selection: Supports advanced white light trans-illumination and optional multi-channel epifluorescence imaging. Five standard wavelengths are available (supporting DAPI/Hoechst, FITC/GFP, Cy3/DS Red, Cy5, and Rhodamine/Texas Red) to automatically image and select clones based on target intensity.

• Versatile Process Automation: Performs multiple mechanical operations beyond standard colony picking, including liquid-to-liquid plate replication, gridding, rearraying, hit picking, and structural plate compression or expansion across 96- and 384-well formats.

• Advanced Colony Screening Parameters: Utilizes objective software algorithms to allow precise, automated colony identification and selection based on defined structural traits such as size, proximity, roundness, blue-white screening, and zone of inhibition assays.

• Integrated Data Tracking & Traceability: Equipped with a built-in barcode reader that automatically scans and links source and destination plates, maintaining a continuous audit trail and clear record of experimental data.

• Acoustic Agar Height Sensing: Utilizes integrated sensor technology to detect variations in agar surface height resulting from pouring volume differences, adjusting robotic z-axis travel to ensure gentle, accurate colony pick-ups without disrupting the media.

• Rigorous Cross-Contamination Control: Combines automated UV interior sanitization with multi-stage pin washing static baths and a proprietary halogen heat sterilization station to eliminate microbial carryover between picks.

• Flexible Deck & Organism-Specific Heads: Supports an adaptable deck layout accommodating 15 cm and 9 cm petri dishes, OmniTrays, and QTrays. Features interchangeable picking heads with organism-specific pins engineered for different targets including E. coli, phage, and yeast.