The plate reformatting tool allows the user to perform several different operations to plates: replication, combination, breakdown, and consolidation. After a reformatting step, the user must execute the worklist to affect change on the plate. This worklist describes how the liquid handler should transfer material from source to destination plates. At each step in generating the worklist, the tool validates and informs the user whether the inputs (volumes, plate formats) are valid for the selected operation.

You can find more detailed definitions of the terms mentioned in this article in the glossary.

Breakdown allows a user to break one plate with a large number of wells into multiple plates with a lower number of wells (ie, one 96-well plate into four 24 well plates).

Prerequisites: one plate with samples in the wells

Post Requisites: a worklist to execute

Created on the fly: new plates in inventory

Use case example: If a user has a single 96-well plate with glycerol stocks, but wanted to inoculate them into four 24-well plates, they would use Breakdown to achieve this.

Combination allows a user to combine multiple plates with a lower number of wells into one plate with a higher number of wells (ie, four 24-well plates into one 96-well plate)

Prerequisites: two or more plates with samples in the wells

Post Requisites: a worklist to execute

Created on the fly: new plate in inventory

Use case example: If a user had inoculated four 24-well plates, but then wanted to take some portion of each of those cultures into a single 96-well plate to make glycerol stocks, they would use Combination to achieve this.

Consolidation pools multiple plates of a certain format into one plate of that same format (ie, multiple 96-well plates into one 96-well plate)

Prerequisites: one or more plates of the same format with samples in the wells

Post Requisites: a worklist to execute

Created on the fly: new plate in inventory with samples pooled in the wells

Use case example: If a user wanted to pool plasmid DNA stored in 96-well plates into one plate to send off for multiplex sequencing, they would use Consolidation to achieve this

Replication allows a user to move some or all of the volume in the wells of an existing plate into a plate of the same format (ie, 96 -well to 96-well). Also known as a plate stamp.

Prerequisites: one or more plates with samples in the wells. Samples must be of liquid materials.

Post Requisites: a worklist to execute

Created on the fly: new plate(s) in inventory with the same samples in the wells. These plates are empty before the worklist is executed.

Use case example: Microbial transformation workflow. When the user wants to transfer 15uL of E. coli + plasmid + SOC into a deep well, overnight plate, they could use replication to achieve this.