RTS Life Science Automation Chosen to Increase UK Biobank Sample Processing
Manchester, UK (August 19, 2009) RTS Life Science, a worldwide supplier of automated products and solutions for drug discovery, delivery and quality control applications within pharmaceutical, biotech, biobanking and academic institutes, is pleased to announce that they have been selected to supply four Saliva and RNA Stabilised Blood Processing Systems to the UK Biobank.
UK Biobank, a project aiming to advance public health in the 21st Century, was officially opened by Princess Anne on 28th July 2009, and is now over half way through its collection of participant samples across the UK. An additional two samples, saliva and blood for RNA isolation, will be collected from the remaining participants and the new RTS automation will allow up to 800 samples to be processed per day.
RTS originally supplied a High Throughput Blood fractionation system for UK Biobank to process centrifuged EDTA, serum separator and plasma separator tubes, enabling the retrieval of the plasma, serum, buffy coat and red blood cells. Since the implementation of these systems, two years ago, RTS has released a 2nd generation ‘blood fractionation’ system (ABF500).
The ABF system has now been refined so that it can process saliva and RNA stabilised blood samples with only minimal instrument preparation required to run either sample type. The user only needs to change the deck layout and select the correct software process.
The new ASP (Automated Sample Processor) 800 will process up to 800 saliva or RNA stabilised blood samples per day into 2 and 6 850ul aliquots respectively. RTS’ eSprint software will provide complete sample tracking and the production of a full audit trail.
Paul Downey, Director of Operations at UK Biobank comments, “The technical support provided by RTS and collaborative approach to solution development has meant that UK Biobank has consistently met its demanding production targets and we are pleased to have them as a long term partner.”
For further information regarding RTS’ biobanking solutions click here, email Lifescience.info@rts-group.com or call +44 (0)161 777 2065.
About RTS
RTS Life Science is a UK-based supplier of automated products and solutions for drug discovery, delivery and quality control applications within pharmaceutical, biotech, biobanking and academic institutes. RTS Life Science is owned by Robotic Technology Systems PLC, an AIM-listed company.
About UK Biobank
UK Biobank is a crucial project for advancing public health in the 21st Century and collects current health and lifestyle information on individuals and gains their permission to track their health for the next 30 years. It also stores blood and urine samples for future analysis. The pioneering project will find out why some people get particular illnesses and others do not – paving the way for improved diagnosis and treatment and better prevention strategies. Researchers from around the world will be able to use the UK Biobank resource if their work meets the strict ethics and scientific criteria required. Their findings will be put back into the public domain so that all research will benefit.
