Tecan Partners with QIAGEN to Automate Pre-analytical Processing of Blood Samples

Tecan has introduced the Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation, a newly designed instrument design that is expected to standardize pre-analytical samples' processing and mixing. 

FREMONT, CA: Tecan has introduced the Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation in order to provide end-to-end automation for full blood pipetting in clinical settings. The newly designed instrument design is expected to standardize the processing and mixing of pre-analytical samples. It is part of an ongoing collaboration with QIAGEN to improve sample preparation with the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus assay for latent tuberculosis (TB) research.

Using a Flexible Channel Arm fitted with Tecan Piercing Tips to aliquot whole blood samples directly from vacuum blood collection tubes or septum-capped tubes without the requirement of manual lid removal, the Fluent Mix and Pierce Workstation provides a fully automated workflow. It eliminates the risk of infectious materials encountering laboratory workers and saves precious time when tube-to-tube or tube-to-plate transfers and whole blood assays are performed. The newly designed Tecan Tube Rotator also includes the workstation, which offers 360-degree tube mixing to hold entire blood samples in suspension without hemolysis. It offers barcode scanning for both primary and secondary tubes to ensure complete process traceability for clinical settings.

Dr. Klaus Lun, Executive Vice President and Head of the Life Sciences Business Division at Tecan, stated: "Our vision at Tecan is to empower every laboratory, every day, around the world, and we are delighted to collaborate with QIAGEN – a global leader in the important area of modern latent TB detection – to help even more labs to increase productivity and reduce processing errors through automation of tedious manual steps."

Jean-Pascal Viola, Senior Vice President, Head of the Molecular Diagnostics Business Area and Corporate Business Development at QIAGEN NV, added: "We are pleased to expand our collaboration with Tecan – a proven leader with a track record of providing best-in-class liquid handling technology solutions – to further improve the automation of pre-analytical whole blood processing. This partnership will greatly accelerate the adoption and ease of processing of single-tube samples for latent TB detection."