Having developed automated methods and validated their results against conventional manual methods, automated liquid handling was subsequently employed to increase throughput and facilitate direct comparison of the antimicrobial susceptibility of planktonic, biofilm forming, and 24 h biofilm cultures of S. mutans to CPC (Fig. 4).
Liquid handling was performed using a Beckman Coulter (Brea, CA) FXP Laboratory Automated Workstation.
Liquid handling was facilitated by using an eight-channel electronic pipettor (Matrix) and barrier tips.
All liquid handling was performed robotically in 384 well plates with a BasePlate Robot (The Automation Partnership, Royston, UK).
Each reaction was undertaken in triplicate and all liquid handling was undertaken using an automated liquid handling system (epMotion 5075LH; Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany).
All liquid handling was done with an eight-channel multidrop liquid dispenser (Wellmate, OH, USA) and a wand aspirator (VP Scientific, CA, USA; VP-186L).
Volumes of the reverse transcription and qPCR reactions were reduced to preserve the genetic material, and robotic liquid handling was optimized for smaller volumes.
All reactions were carried out in 384-well plates, and liquid handling was performed on a Matrix Platemate 2×3 Pipetting Workstation (Thermo Scientific).
Liquid handling was performed using the Multidrop 384 (Thermo Scientific) for dispension steps and a plate washer ELx50-166, BioTek) for aspiration steps.
In order to find the format providing us with the greatest flexibility as far as the quality of the image acquisition, the growth conditions of the BY-2 cells, and the general liquid handling were concerned, it was first necessary to take a closer look at some of the characteristics of the model system used in the bio-assay.
