(i) 2D Gel Digestion and MALDI plate preparation
Deerac Fluidics have collaborated with a prominent European biotech company to validate the Equator for use in liquid handling steps in the process of 2D Gel Digestion and subsequent MALDI plate preparation.

(ii) Protein Spotting
Deerac Fluidics have developed  a number of assays involved spotting of proteins for a wide variety of applications including:

• Biomarker Discovery: Dispensing arrays of proteins into well plates and flat surfaces for multiplex assays.
• Protein Chips: Manufacture of small protein arrays as part of a collaboration with the Centre for Human Proteomics in Dublin.
• Protein Spotting: In collaboration with Bruker Optics the Equator has been used for the application of protein samples onto the new HTS-XT FTIR measurement system. This is useful for applications involving protein interactions and substrate binding.

Figure 5. Spotting of proteins to a flat surface.

“Automatic sample preparation using the Equator increases reproducibility of the measured IR-spectrum in comparison with the manual sample preparation. In some cases an improvement of a factor of 10 can be seen. 

By automatic sample preparation much less sample is needed to reach the same spectral intensity as by manual preparation. In our study 5 times more sample by manual loading was required to reach a similar signal intensity of the automated loading. This effect is due to the more homogenious distribution of the sample over the field of measurement by automated loading”
   - Dr. Matthias Boese (Divisional Manager, Biomedicine Bruker Optics)