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Add Reagents Tool

How to add one or more reagents to one or more plates.

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Written by Tiffany Dai
Updated over a week ago

The Add Reagents tool allows the user to add one or more reagents to one or more plates. Plates and reagents are selected by the user. This tool adds the same volume of a reagent across all wells that contain aliquots, excluding empty wells. 

Input: One or more plates

Output: Updated plates with the addition of user-specified reagents

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

Prerequisites: 

  • (required) The plate(s) must already exist in inventory (Inventory > Plates)

  • If the plate does not exist yet, use go to Inventory > Plates > ‘New Plate’ or ‘Upload’ to create a new plate. 

  • (required) The reagent(s) must be listed under materials (Materials > Reagents)

  • If the reagent is not listed yet, use the header to go to Materials > Reagents > ‘New Reagent’ and add the reagent to the list.

  • (optional) The user can specify a reagent lot when transferring a reagent to a plate. If a reagent lot is specified, the transferred volumes will be subtracted from the volume of the reagent lot. If the user chooses to simply select a reagent without specifying a reagent lot, the tool assumes that there is no limit on the reagent’s availability. To create a reagent lot, use the header to go to Inventory > Reagent Lots > ‘New Reagent Lot’

A simple use case: Add some LB growth media to a plate.

You can find the ‘Add Reagents’ tool under Tools > Tool Library. Click ‘Launch Tool’ to start using the tool. 

The tool will walk you through several steps. 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 Plates: Click ‘Select Plates’ to select one or more plates from inventory by checking the box(es) next to the desired plate(s). Click ‘Select Plates’ to confirm your selection. 

After selecting the desired plate(s), you can view the table of selected plates. To change the selections, click ‘Change Plates’, or click on the red trash can icon above the table to remove all selected plates from the list. To remove a single plate from the list, click on the red trash can icon at the right of that plate’s row. Click on the eye icon at the left of a plate’s row in order to see the plate map and listed contents. When satisfied with the selections, click ‘Next’ to go to the next step.

2. Add Reagents: Click ‘Select Reagents’ to choose one or more reagents from inventory to add to the selected plate(s) by checking the box next to the desired reagent(s). Name the Reagents List to give a name to the generated file to track transfers.

Use 'Select Reagent Lot' to track the depletion of reagent stocks.

Selecting a reagent lot is optional. If a reagent lot is specified, the transferred volumes will be subtracted from the volume of the reagent lot. If the user chooses to simply select a reagent without specifying a reagent lot, the tool assumes that there is no limit on the reagent’s availability. Click ‘Select Reagent Lot’ to confirm your selection.

You need to specify a transfer volume for the reagent to be added to the plate. This tool adds the same volume of a reagent across all wells that contain aliquots, excluding empty wells unless you check the box that says 'Add reagents to empty wells?'. 

Inputting a concentration is optional. Currently, entering a working concentration will add the information to the Additives section of an aliquot but will not be used in any calculations of diluting stock solution. Click ‘Submit’ to add the specified volume of the selected reagent to the selected plate. This will bring you to the confirmation screen with links to the updated plates and Add Reagents List.

From the confirmation screen, click on 'Updated 1 Plate(s)' to view the changes to your plate. Double click on any of the colored wells in the plate map or any of the rows in the table view to see detail about the well contents.

From the confirmation screen, click on 'Created 1 Add Reagents List' to view the list of transfers.

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