This tool allows users to pool different aliquots of materials together following a pooling schema to create pooled samples.
Input: CSV File or Table of specific template
Output: A pooling worklist transferring samples from input tubes and/or plates to destination tubes, racks or plates.
You can find more detailed definitions of the terms mentioned in this article in the glossary.
Prerequisite: It is required that the Aliquots of materials being pooled together must exist on plates or tubes in the inventory and these containers must have barcodes.
You can find the ‘Pooling’ tool under Tools > Tool Library. Click ‘Launch Tool’ to start using the tool. The tool will walk you through several steps to create a pooling worklist. You need to complete each step before proceeding to the next. After completing a step, the completed step mark (circle) will turn green with a checkmark. You can always use the ‘previous’ button to go back to any previous step.
1. Select Pooling Schema: Select a pooling schema from the ‘Data Tables’ inventory or upload a pooling schema in either CSV or Excel format.
1.a. Select Data Table: With the ‘Select Data Table’ option, upload a data table of type ‘Pooling Schema’ ahead of time by going to Data > Data Tables > Upload > Upload Table. You then can select a pooling schema from all the data tables of type ‘Pooling Schema’ in the ‘Data Tables’ inventory.
1.b. Upload Pool Schema: Turn on the toggle button and select a schema file in CSV or Excel format from your local computer. The template for the pooling schema is shown below. The required fields are ‘Barcode’, and ‘Pooled Sample Name’. Other fields are either optional or conditionally required depending on the availability of one or more other fields.
Barcode: the barcode of the container to which the source aliquot is assigned.
Position: If the provided barcode belongs to a plate or a tube rack, the position is conditionally required to provide the explicit position of the source aliquot. Eg. A1, A2, etc.
Pooled Sample Name: name of the pooled sample. Aliquots with the same ‘Pooled Sample Name’ will be pooled together.
Protein Pattern: this optional field allows users to specify a protein pattern associated with each pooled sample. For example, you can create pools of oligos such that each pool represents a particular protein pattern that you try to express and characterize. The protein pattern will be displayed in the record view of the pooled sample.
Volume: this optional field allows users to specify the amount of each source aliquot to be transferred to the pooled sample. If the volume is not specified, users can specify a universal transfer volume in the next step.
Volumetric Unit: this field is required if the volume is specified.
Once the pooling schema is uploaded, users can review the pooling schema before proceeding to the next step. If the system detects any invalid information (eg. barcodes do not exist in inventory, or aliquots do not have any materials), warnings will be displayed in the form of red info icons next to problematic entries. These warnings need to be resolved before proceeding to the next step.
2. Destination Container Configuration: Select the destination container type (plates or tubes) and give the container a name. Depending on the number of destination containers, the container’s name will be appended with an incremental number starting from 1. Uncheck the ‘Generate Barcodes’ if you do not want the system to generate the barcodes for the destination containers.
If ‘Volume’ was not specified, the user will be required to apply a universal transfer volume before proceeding to the next step.
3. Review Worklist: This step allows the user to review the pooling worklist, which contains instructions for transferring volumes from source containers to the destination containers. Name the worklist and click ‘Generate Worklist’.
You will be notified that the pooling is completed and there are links to the destination container(s) that store(s) the pooled samples, along with a pooling worklist. The destination container at this stage is only a placeholder to store the pooled samples. Until the worklist is executed, the destination container will be empty. You must use the ‘Execute Worklist’ tool to execute the pooling worklist, which updates the destination container with pooled samples in the database.