Artel MVS as a Tool for Measuring Liquid Mixing Efficacy in Microplates

Abstract
You wouldn’t bake a cake without mixing the ingredients first, yet when important assays are being conducted the liquids dispensed into a microplate are often assumed to have mixed through simple diffusion or after only a cursory agitation of the plate.

For assay results to be truly trustworthy, every part of the methodology employed needs to be assessed for efficacy and repeatability. This application note describes how the Artel MVS® Multichannel Verification System can be used as a tool for measuring the efficacy of liquid mixing protocols.

In addition, the data presented herein highlights the importance of ensuring that effective mixing of the solutions dispensed into a microplate has occurred during every step of the assay procedure. This is particularly poignant as experiments conducted within the Artel laboratory show that diffusion‐based mixing can take as long as 24 hours, and even a plate shaker set at 2200 RPM can take close to 10 minutes to achieve complete mixing if the shaker protocol has not been optimized.