Lab automation for high-throughput clone screening
Fully-integrated, lab automation solution for molecular cloning, antibody discovery, and monoclonality
Explore automation-ready systems for your clone screening workflow
Mammalian and microbial clone screening projects traditionally begin with a target—a receptor, protein, or gene that participates in a biological pathway of interest. Next comes screening, where thousands to millions of cells are tested and analyzed in relation to the target. This presents a significant bottleneck for labs as it requires laborious and time-consuming methods across a wide range of analytical platforms.
With Molecular Devices automated clone screening workflows, you can ease the burden on your lab by significantly reducing hands-on-time while creating a central repository for data pulled from multiple processes. Our automated solutions unify all of your laboratory devices to increase your throughput and efficiency while reducing human interaction.
Automated cell line development workflow
Cell line development requires the discovery of single cell-derived clones that produce high and consistent levels of the target therapeutic protein. A critical first step in the process is the isolation of single, viable cells. Single cells proliferate to form colonies that can then be assessed for productivity of the target therapeutic protein. Viability and growth rates of single cell-derived clones are then characterized before final selection and scale-up.
Workcell integrated system solution:
- CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer
- CloneSelect Imager
- SpectraMax iD5 Multi-Mode Microplate Reader
- AquaMax Microplate Washer
- Sartorius Octet BLI Label-Free Detection Systems
- Beckman Coulter Biomek automated liquid handler
- Bionex Solutions HiG4 automated centrifuge
- LiCONiC LiCotel automated plate hotels
- LiCONiC StoreX automated incubator
Automated molecular cloning workflow
Molecular cloning refers to the isolation of a DNA sequence from any species (often a gene), and its insertion into a vector for propagation, without alteration of the original DNA sequence. This is a very laborious process when done manually requiring hundreds of plates and kits. There are several areas where errors or contamination can occur. Automating the process can reduce FTE time by 50% while increasing throughput and efficiency two fold.
Workcell integrated system solution:
- QPix Microbial Colony Pickers
- SpectraMax Microplate Reader with SoftMax Pro GxP Software
- Beckman Coulter Biomek automated liquid handler
- LiCONiC StoreX automated incubator
- Micronic Tube Capper/De-Capper
- Plate labeler, sealer and peeler
- Multidrop Combi
- PCR Platform
- Plate Centrifuge
- Fragment analyzer
Latest Resources
![[Podcast] Challenges of traditional cell line development and emerging technologies to help regulate monoclonality](/sites/default/files/2022-09/monoclonality-assurance-cell-line-development.jpg)
Applications of Lab automation for high-throughput clone screening
-
Cell Cultured Meat
Cell cultured meat is a product of cellular agriculture that uses biopsied animal cells to grow sustainable, humane meat as an alternative to the traditional farming industry. Because cell cultured meat is made with mammalian cells, many of the processes in developing and scaling a cell cultured meat product will mirror those in in biologics production, specifically cell line development.
Cell Line Development
Cell line development is a critical step in the process of generating biopharmaceutical molecules, such as monoclonal antibodies. The process often begins with transfecting the host cell type with the DNA encoding the therapeutic protein of interest allowing for random or directed integration of target DNA into the host cell genome. Thousands of clones are screened to isolate the rare high producing cells, a manual and time-consuming process.
-
Gene Editing
Gene editing is a genetic manipulation in which a living organism’s genomic DNA is deleted, inserted, replaced, or modified. Gene editing is a site-specific targeting to create breaks in DNA through various techniques and does not always involve repair mechanisms. It consists of two techniques – inactivation and correction.
Hybridoma Screening
Antibody discovery typically refers to the screening and identification of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that target a specific epitope for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. A common approach to generating monoclonal antibodies involves the fusion of a pre-mitotic cancer cell with a post-mitotic and terminal antibody-expressing B-cell from the spleen. The resulting fused cell is called a hybridoma and has the advantage of producing mAbs while dividing to regenerate itself. Screening hybridomas for binding specificity or productivity can be automated using the ClonePix 2 System.
-
Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs)
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) originate from one unique parent cell, thus binding only to a single epitope. Monoclonal antibody discovery typically refers to the screening and identification of specific antibodies that target a specific epitope for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, like the coronavirus for COVID-19.
Phage Display
Phage Display is a technique to enable the study of protein, peptide or DNA interaction with a target protein. This molecular tool enables the discovery of high-affinity binders by using bacteriophages to present a target protein on the exterior of the viral coat, while containing the DNA encoding the target protein inside the viral coat. The resultant displaying phages can be screened for binding against a library of peptides or proteins in a high throughput fashion. QPix colony pickers can be used to automate inoculation, plating, spreading and picking in a Phage Display workflow.
-
Precision Fermentation
Cellular agriculture allows us to produce genuine animal proteins through microbial precision fermentation. Using synthetic biology techniques like strain engineering, scientists can engineer microbial cells as cellular factories for various organic molecules, most commonly proteins. In the food supply chain, precision fermentation is used to create everything from plant-based proteins from yeast cells to dairy- and animal-free whey protein from fungal strains.
Synthetic Biology
Synthetic biology is a broad term that refers to the manipulation of genetic pathways to harness the power of existing biological systems in novel ways (often to manufacture molecules or proteins). Synthetic biology applies principles that are derived from engineering, specifically design-build-test-learn cycles, to biological systems. By leveraging high-throughput workflows, synthetic biologists can accelerate this process.
Resources of Lab automation for high throughput clone screening
Blog
Advanced technology for automated 3D biology workflows #SLASEurope2022
Advanced technology for automated 3D biology workflows #SLASEurope2022
SLAS Europe 2022, hosted numerous sessions packed with the latest research on emerging topics as well as sessions and panel discussions focused on how to build, and succeed, in a…
News
Molecular Devices expands global R&D hub in Austria
Molecular Devices expands global R&D hub in Austria
Larger site will be future home of the Organoid Innovation Center – Salzburg, a collaborative space for advancing automated cell line development, organoid development, and scree…
-
Blog
[Podcast] Challenges of traditional cell line development and emerging technologies to help regulate monoclonality
[Podcast] Challenges of traditional cell line development and emerging technologies to help regulate monoclonality
Advancements in genetic engineering and synthetic biology have allowed numerous breakthroughs in recent decades. The importance of cell line development needs an honorable mention.…
-
Blog
Synthetic Biology Automation: Five Tips to Improve Your Molecular Cloning Process
Synthetic Biology Automation: Five Tips to Improve Your Molecular Cloning Process
One of the biggest global concerns is our excessive use of resources and its undeniable impact on the environment. In particular, manufacturing processes require enormous amounts of…
-
Blog
The role of Monoclonal Antibodies against COVID-19
The role of Monoclonal Antibodies against COVID-19
Discover why mAbs are key in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 and how the pandemic has shaped their discovery and development pipeline. Over the past three years, the development of…
-
Blog
COVID-19 Timeline: Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Therapeutic Antibody Development
COVID-19 Timeline: Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Therapeutic Antibody Development
Global research efforts are focused on understanding the SARS-CoV-2 virus in order to develop potential therapies for COVID-19. Join us as we explore a scientific timeline of key…
-
Blog
Life Science and Technology Predictions for 2022
Life Science and Technology Predictions for 2022
For three decades, Molecular Devices has made scientific breakthroughs possible for academic, pharmaceutical, government, and biotech customers with its innovative life science…
-
Blog
Engineering Next-gen Organoids with Automated Lab Workflows at #SLAS2022
Engineering Next-gen Organoids with Automated Lab Workflows at #SLAS2022
SLAS2022, the Society for Lab Automation and Screening conference offered another exciting year for learning about innovative laboratory technologies. Whether you attended in-person…
-
Blog
How to Develop Monoclonal Cell Lines for Stem Cell Engineering
How to Develop Monoclonal Cell Lines for Stem Cell Engineering
Monoclonal assurance is undeniably critical in cell line development for generating therapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies or cell-based therapies. To utilize a cell line for…
Scientific Poster
Automation of 3D organoid culture workflow with deep-learning based image analysis
Automation of 3D organoid culture workflow with deep-learning based image analysis
3D cell culture as a model system is increasingly popular because it recapitulates the in vivo microenvironment better than 2D cell cultures. Organoids have the capacity for stable d…
-
Scientific Poster
Automation and high content imaging of 3D triple-negative breast cancer patient-derived
Automation and high content imaging of 3D triple-negative breast cancer patient-derived
Triple negative breast cancer is a clinically aggressive tumor subtype, with high rates of metastasis, recurrence, and drug resistance. Currently there are no clinically approved sma…
-
Blog
Lab Automation 101: Inside Access From Our Subject Matter Expert
Lab Automation 101: Inside Access From Our Subject Matter Expert
In life sciences, more is more. Obtaining a great body of data that is consistent and insightful to get a qualitative and quantitative overview of your model is critical. However,…
-
Blog
Accelerated Production of Monoclonal Antibodies for the Treatment of SARS-CoV-2
Accelerated Production of Monoclonal Antibodies for the Treatment of SARS-CoV-2
With solutions from Molecular Devices, scientists can fast-track the FDA approval process and accelerate monoclonal antibody discovery The timeline to identify and develop…
Brochure
Clone screening solutions
Clone screening solutions
Advance your microbial and mammalian clone screening with proven, automated technologies
Publications
Project Profile: Organoid Innovation Center
Project Profile: Organoid Innovation Center
Lab Manager speaks to Dan O’Connor, vice president, drug discovery, Molecular Devices, about the company’s Organoid Innovation Center in San Jose, CA. The center is 180 sq. ft., with…
Application Note
Accelerated clone selection for recombinant CHO cells using CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer f. sight fluorescence-aided sorting
Accelerated clone selection for recombinant CHO cells using CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer f. sight fluorescence-aided sorting
The market for biotherapeutics and therapeutic proteins was valued at $93.14 billion in 2018 and is expected to nearly double by the end of 2022.
-
Brochure
QPix colony picking series
QPix colony picking series
QPix™ systems earned a well-deserved reputation for performance and reliability during the race to sequence the human genome with the Human Genome Project, and continues to support i…
eBook
Optimize your high-value cell lines
Optimize your high-value cell lines
During the last decade, production of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and recombinant proteins using mammalian cells has led to a boom in the introduction of biotherapeutic proteins to…
-
Scientific Poster
A comparison of traditional cloning methods vs. CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer f.sight using CHO cell lines commonly used for mAb production
A comparison of traditional cloning methods vs. CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer f.sight using CHO cell lines commonly used for mAb production
As regulations for cell line development become increasingly more stringent, researchers will be required to perform single-cell cloning and provide evidence that a cell line is deri…
-
Application Note
Comparison of traditional cloning methods vs. CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer f.sight using CHO cell lines commonly used for monoclonal antibody production
Comparison of traditional cloning methods vs. CloneSelect Single-Cell Printer f.sight using CHO cell lines commonly used for monoclonal antibody production
As regulations for cell line development become increasingly more stringent, researchers will be required to perform single-cell cloning and provide evidence that a cell line is…
-
Application Note
A microfluidics-based, single cell printing and microplate imaging workflow optimized for efficiency, viability and monoclonality report generation
A microfluidics-based, single cell printing and microplate imaging workflow optimized for efficiency, viability and monoclonality report generation
In this app note, we demonstrate a unified workflow that combines single cell deposition and clonality verification. We couple the use of the SCP and CSI to deposit single cells into a…
-
Application Note
A workflow combining single-cell isolation and microplate imaging improves cloning efficiency with higher assurance of clonality
A workflow combining single-cell isolation and microplate imaging improves cloning efficiency with higher assurance of clonality
The isolation of single cells has a broad spectrum of applications, from single-cell genomics to antibody discovery and cell line development.
-
Publications
QPix™ Chroma Filter Thin Film Optical Filter for Blue/White Colony Selection
QPix™ Chroma Filter Thin Film Optical Filter for Blue/White Colony Selection
The QPix™ Chroma Filter is a thin film translucent optical filter that provides a robust method to confidently select and pick rare expressing bacterial colonies based on color inten…
-
Brochure
QPix Custom Microbial Colony Pickers
QPix Custom Microbial Colony Pickers
The Edinburgh Genome Foundry (EGF) is dedicated to automated design and assembly of large DNA constructs using a fully automated robotic platform. They needed an automated colony picker…
-
Application Note
Improved productivity of cell line development using fully integrated automated solutions: a series of case studies with the CloneSelect Imager
Improved productivity of cell line development using fully integrated automated solutions: a series of case studies with the CloneSelect Imager
Cell line development requires screening tens of thousands of clones in order to find the few clones that are stable, grow well, and produce high yields of bioproduct. In addition to…
-
Brochure
CloneSelect Imager
CloneSelect Imager
CloneSelect Imager system produces objective, quantitative, and consistent results in less time to overcome the challenges associated with conventional cell confluence techniques.…
-
Brochure
Accelerate Cell Line Development
Accelerate Cell Line Development
Explore PDF to learn how you can accelerate your cell line development and get to your high value hits faster.
Automating culture and high-content imaging of 3D organoids for in vitro assessment of compound effects
Tips to automating molecular cloning and strain engineering applications
Advanced Workflow Engineering Solutions (AWES) Introductory
Customization and Automation
Related Products & Services of Lab automation for high throughput clone screening
Cellular Imaging Systems
Transform your incredible images into captivating results
Featured Applications
Cell Cultured Meat
Cell cultured meat is a product of cellular agriculture that uses biopsied animal cells to grow…
Cell Line Development
Cell line development is a critical step in the process of generating biopharmaceutical molecules,…
Gene Editing
Gene editing is a genetic manipulation in which a living organism’s genomic DNA is deleted,…
Hybridoma Screening
Antibody discovery typically refers to the screening and identification of monoclonal antibodies (…
Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs)
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) originate from one unique parent cell, thus binding only to a single…
Phage Display
Phage Display is a technique to enable the study of protein, peptide or DNA interaction with a…
Precision Fermentation
Cellular agriculture allows us to produce genuine animal proteins through microbial precision…
Synthetic Biology
Synthetic biology is a broad term that refers to the manipulation of genetic pathways to harness…
Want to save time and resources with an automation-ready solution?
We’re here to help. Our highly qualified team of scientists and engineers can automate systems and entire workflows to meet specific needs of your assay, method, or protocol. Are you ready to explore an automated lab solution—saving time and resources while advancing scientific discovery?