This tool takes in any number of plates, tubes and reagent lots as input and allows the user to generate worklists to transfer their contents to new or existing plates.
Input: Tubes, Racks and/or Reagent Lots
Output: One or more worklists for transferring reagents and/or materials to plates.
You can find more detailed definitions of the terms mentioned in this article in the glossary.
Prerequisites:
Choose One or Both of the following:
Input Plate(s) of samples
Inventory Lists of samples. These can be output by the Inventory Check step of the PCR Planning and Inventory Check tool.
You can find the Plate Prep tool under Tools > Tool Library. Click ‘Launch Tool’ to start using the tool.
This tool consists of three steps: Select Materials, Map to Destination Plates, and Review Worklists.
Step 1: Select Materials
The first steps allows you to choose what you would like to add to destination plates. While this can be any material from plates or tubes, our most common use-case for this tool is selecting Reagents to prep destination plates. In the example below, we are selecting a lot of Glycerol.
Once input materials have been selected, click "Next" to proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Map to Destination Plates
Begin Step 2 by inputting a transfer volume. If you would like to enter a universal transfer volume for all transfers, check the box labeled "Apply Universal Transfer Volume". Otherwise specify a transfer volume for each of the input materials selected in Step 1.
Next, you have the option of selecting existing plates to prep, or creating new plates. In the example below, we are choosing an existing plate of microbial materials to add our glycerol to.
Once the destination plate has been selected, click "Choose Wells" to specify which wells you would like to prep. This can be done by clicking and dragging on the dialog.
This tool assumes that the user is tracking transfers of reagents via an intermediate container (e.g. a reservoir plate). If you have already created an intermediate container, return to Step 1 and select the plate or tube before returning to Step 2. Otherwise, input a name and type for the intermediate container here.
You can also check the box labeled "Prep Empty Wells" (displayed above) if you would like to automatically transfer to all empty wells.
The Plate Prep tool creates one worklist for each input material selected in Step 1. If you would like to combine these into one worklist, click the "Combine Worklists" slider before clicking "Next".
Step 3: Review Worklists
In the final step provide a name for the output worklist, verify that the transfers are correct and click "Generate Worklist" to complete the tool.
Once completed, you can launch the Execute Worklist Tool or click the link "Created Plate Prep Worklist(s)" to export the worklist in a variety of availabe liquid handling formats.
