Validation of VERSA Mini Gelified-Medium Dispenser for Automated Dispensing of Agarified Culture Media into Target Vessels

Automated dispensing of agarified culture medium such as plant or tissue culture, microbial nutrient broth and insect diet has been difficult to achieve because of the viscous nature of these fluids. Such media tend to solidify at room temperature during dispensing. Aurora Biomed has validated the ability of the VERSA Mini Gelified-Medium Dispenser to dispense agarified liquids. Plant tissue culture, microbial nutrient broth, and insect diet were dispensed into target vessels to test the range of function. A coefficient of variance (CV%) was calculated for 500 µL of 3.6% agarified insect diet. A CV% of 2.4 and 1.8 was achieved using manual and automated methods, respectively. Similarly, the CV% of inaccuracy of the manual process was -0.46 and 0.23 when dispensing through the VERSA Mini Gelified-Medium Dispenser. The dispense-only feature of this system eliminated the problem of having agarified fluids building up in the tip during aspiration-dispensing operations normally found in manual procedures. With a dispensing flow rate of 21.18 mL/min the VERSA Mini Gelified-Medium Dispenser filled one 24-well plate (16 mm diameter wells) with a 500 µL aliquot of insect diet in each well in 34 seconds, filling 105 plates per hour. However, increasing or decreasing the nozzle diameter allows researchers to customize the flow rate and throughput of the system to meet their specific requirements.