Dr.RobotLabs DIY (recycleable) microwell plate / microarray slide

thingiverse

I test a lot of microarray slides and agarose coatings always work well (same stuff you use for DNA electrophoresis gels). So like when you cast DNA gels thought it would be cool to print a really small gel caster for surface coating. Surprisingly you can make really consistent coatings with this trick and you can use the same set up to attach gaskets to create small wells. This design is for a 16 pad (8 row x 2 column) set up. Agarose is cool because you can mix it with different chemistries. When you finish assay just rehydrate and scrap agarose off But I haven't been able to get such good data using chemiluminescence, but fluorescence works great. If you look at the pre and post washes of protein array you can see how well the agarose retains the spots. Here's more data:http://www.htsresources.com/recycleable_surfaces_for_bioassays.php Instructions After printing you want make surface waterproof, we glue a small transparency. Then seal the sides with silicon glue. Prepare Approx 1% Agarose in water or whatever nuke it in microwave Put slide in casting station, clip some plastic over top. Load the melted agarose on top of slide Let stand or like 30 minutes or so (or put in fridge to make faster) After solidifying, carefully remove plastic (maybe you need to spray with no stick if its a problem). Put slide on hot plate to dry agarose. Coat with functionalization chemistry (agarose works well by it self too) You can strip agarose layer and reuse surface