Revolutionizing plasmid production with fully automated high throughput workflows for faster antigen design

Introduction

This fully integrated robotic system enables the automated production of transfection-grade plasmid DNA, designed to accelerate and scale up early-stage antigen design by internalizing and automating the entire plasmid production workflow. It combines essential molecular biology steps, including DNA fragment rehydration, restriction enzyme digestion, molecular cloning, bacterial transformation, colony picking, and plasmid extraction – into one seamless system. Multiple instruments are linked via a robotic arm and coordinated by PlateButler software, creating a high-throughput, traceable, and reproducible workflow with minimal manual intervention. 

Application purpose

The platform was developed to automate the complete process of plasmid DNA production, enabling the parallel handling of many constructs. The workflow begins with the rehydration of DNA fragments, followed by restriction enzyme digestion and Gibson assembly. These initial steps are carried out in small volumes using an acoustic liquid handler, enabling low-volume reaction setup with great accuracy.After assembly, the constructs undergo transformation into competent cells. The transformation process is performed using an integrated thermal cycler. Following recovery, cells are plated onto agar plates and incubated in temperature-controlled Cytomat incubators. Once colonies have formed, an automated colony picker uses image recognition to select individual colonies based on predefined criteria. These colonies are inoculated into deep-well plates for overnight growth. After sufficient culture growth, the system proceeds with plasmid purification using a liquid handler.  The extracted plasmid DNA is quantified and normalized to consistent concentrations using a worklist generated by PlateButler. After quantification and normalization, the plasmid DNA is ready for downstream use. 

Why you should choose this solution

The platform offers a fully automated, end-to-end solution for high-throughput plasmid DNA production, significantly reducing dependency on manual labor. By integrating key molecular biology techniques into a single automated platform, the platform ensures consistency, efficiency, and scalability across the entire workflow. Its modular design, centralized control, and robotic coordination make it possible to handle large numbers of samples in parallel while maintaining reproducibility and data integrity. Compared to conventional plasmid workflows, this solution enables faster turnaround times.