Tecan has launched the Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation to provide end-to-end automation for whole blood pipetting in clinical environments.
This newly developed instrument configuration is intended to standardise pre-analytical sample handling and mixing, and is part of an ongoing collaboration with QIAGEN to optimise sample preparation for latent tuberculosis (TB) testing with the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus assay.
The Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation provides a fully automated workflow, using a Flexible Channel Arm equipped with Tecan Piercing Tips to aliquot whole blood samples directly from vacuum blood collection tubes or septum-capped tubes – without the need for manual lid removal. This reduces the risk of laboratory staff coming into contact with infectious materials, and saves valuable time when performing tube-to-tube or tube-to-plate transfers and whole blood assays.
The workstation also features the newly developed Tecan Tube Rotator, which provides 360-degree tube mixing to maintain whole blood samples in suspension without haemolysis. It also includes barcode scanning for both primary and secondary tubes to ensure full process traceability for clinical settings.