Researchers to benefit from an innovative software-connected pipetting system, bringing improved reproducibility and traceability of experiments to life-science laboratories.
GOETTINGEN, Germany / GENEVA, Switzerland, February 08, 2019 / B3C newswire / — Andrew Alliance S.A. and Sartorius today announced the launch of the Andrew Alliance Pipette+ system, which uniquely provides both full traceability and improved repeatability in manual pipetting for life science laboratories. Andrew Alliance, the robotics company with an innovative approach to liquid handling that is improving repeatability of conventional laboratory pipettes, and the Life Science company Sartorius, are collaborating to bring this intelligent pipetting solution to market.
As much as half of all research funding in life sciences is used to repeat experiments, showing that lack of reproducibility in research is an ongoing challenge in the biopharmaceutical industry. A major cause of irreproducibility has been incorrect execution in liquid handling workflows. This collaboration between Andrew Alliance and Sartorius reflects both companies’ strategic investment in designing innovative pipetting solutions to improve reproducibility and simplify the complex and time-consuming workflows.
The Andrew Alliance Pipette+ system comprises several components that communicate with one another: electronic single and multichannel pipettes, an intelligent stand, and novel cloud-based software. Andrew Alliance co-developed the Pipette+ system with Sartorius, who is manufacturing the pipette hardware. The hardware is based on Sartorius’s Picus® range of award-winning, ergonomic electronic pipettes. Using current-day Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, the pipettes communicate wirelessly with the stand by Bluetooth, and the computerized charging stand communicates with Cloud servers by either Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The pipette transmits data to the stand, such as possible errors, operator identity, and step-by-step actions taken by the operator, ensuring full traceability and improved repeatability.
The software system uses Andrew Alliance’s free, browser-based intelligent software environment, OneLab. This software allows intuitive protocol design and simplified protocol execution. For instance, the software can indicate which pipette is to be used at each step in an experiment, preset the required pipetting parameters, and eject tips at the appropriate time. Thus, users can complete protocols in a few clicks. The Andrew Alliance Pipette+ system, therefore, combines the best-in-class pipetting performance, and excellent ergonomics Sartorius’ pipettes are known for, with intelligent software.
“We worked together with Andrew Alliance to provide the scientific community with a next-generation solution for manual pipetting. We’ve been at the forefront of the electronic pipette revolution with our Picus pipette and are now connecting the world of pipetting to the world of computing. This represents a quantitative leap in the performance of electronic pipettes over that of mechanical devices,” says Venkat Rao, Head Business Management, EMEA Life Science Research at Sartorius.
“Life science researchers should be confident that their often highly limited biological samples, costly reagents and time, are focused on progressing valuable research rather than unnecessarily repeating experiments,” said Piero Zucchelli, CEO and co-founder of Andrew Alliance. “Andrew Alliance and Sartorius, the market leader in electronic pipettes, are addressing the manual liquid handling repeatability problem head on.”
Enabled by this collaboration, Andrew Alliance has launched a larger family of collaborative products serving the life-science research market at the recent Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening Trade Show in Washington DC, at which it won a New Product Award for Pipette+.
About Andrew Alliance S.A.
Andrew Alliance is dedicated to advancing science by working with researchers to create a new class of easy-to-use robots and connected devices that take repeatability, performance and efficiency of laboratory experiments to the level required by 21st century biology. Its new class of high-performance, easy-to-use robots, use sustainable technology to dramatically improve the repeatability, performance, and speed of liquid handling. This customer-centric approach, and Andrew, the flagship robot, have won numerous accolades since 2013, transforming bench research in hundreds of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and academic laboratories worldwide, by eliminating routine pipetting errors and time-consuming manual efforts. Andrew Alliance, a CO2-Neutral Certified Company, is based in Geneva, Boston, and Paris.
About Sartorius
The Sartorius Group is a leading international partner of biopharmaceutical research and the industry. With innovative laboratory instruments and consumables, the Group’s Lab Products & Services Division concentrates on serving the needs of laboratories performing research and quality control at pharma and biopharma companies and those of academic research institutes. The Bioprocess Solutions Division with its broad product portfolio focusing on single-use solutions helps customers to manufacture biotech medications and vaccines safely and efficiently. The Group has been annually growing by double digits on average and has been regularly expanding its portfolio by acquisitions of complementary technologies. In fiscal 2018, Sartorius earned sales revenue of more than 1.6 billion euros according to preliminary figures. Currently, more than 8,100 people work at the Group’s approximately 60 manufacturing and sales sites, serving customers around the globe.
Contacts
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Corporate Communications
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Alexandra Krasnikowa
Product Management Lab Essentials
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