High Throughput Chromatography Automation for Clinical Laboratories

Cambridge based Anatune will be exhibiting its new Clinical Sample Preparation Workstation at the Association for Clinical biochemistry's National Meeting, Focus 2011, to be held in Harrogate during May.

This instrument is targeted at the managers of busy clinical laboratories who are dissatisfied with the amount of staff time that is taken up in manually preparing samples prior to analysis by LC-MS.  This new clinical workstation offers improved data quality, increased sample capacity, faster turn-around times and lower overall costs by allowing complete automation of many common assays, linking sample preparation and analysis into a single seamless process.

Unlike other partial attempts at automation, the system can automate protein precipitation from blood serum and the separation of red cells from whole blood and coupled either with miniaturised solid phase extraction and the introduction of prepared samples into the LC-MS  in a just-in-time basis, so that while one sample is being analysed, the next sample is being prepared, maximising throughput and ensuring that each sample in a batch is treated exactly the same way.  The system offers complete turn-key solutions for several determinations that are of importance to many clinical laboratories such as: Vitamin D in Blood Serum, Immunosuppressants in Whole Blood, Urinary Free Cortisol, and Fatty Acid Profiling (by Automated Gas Chromatography).