Controlled Scanning of Microtiter Plates through the Use

Controlled Scanning of Microtiter Plates through the Use of Lab. VIEW® Erica Chin Anton Edmund Samir Laoui May 14, 2008

Topics to be Discussed l l l Background Goals of Project Responsibilities Project Timetable Project Results – – – Front Panel Block Diagrams Test Results l l l Discussion Recommendations Conclusions

Microtiter Plate l l Standard tool in analytical research and clinical diagnostic testing laboratories Contains 6, 24, 96, 384 or 1536 sample wells arranged in a rectangular matrix Each well typically holds liquids of up to 200 microliters Designed to be disposable and usually made of plastic

Use of Microtiter Plate l l Antibody-antigen binding can be detected Can detect specific biological, chemical or physical events in samples stored in these plates

Commercial Microtiter Plate Scanners l l l High-intensity lamp passes light to microtiter well Light emitted by reaction is quantified by detector Detection modes: absorbance, fluorescence, and luminescence

Lab. VIEW Overview l l l Lab. VIEW: Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench Lab. VIEW is commonly used for data acquisition, instrument control, and industrial automation One benefit of Lab. VIEW is the extensive support for accessing instrumentation hardware

APT Stepper Motor Controller l l l Manufactured by Thorlabs Can be configured for two or three channels of operation Excellent low speed performance and positioning stability

APT Configuration Utility l l Configure system parameters and configuration settings Convenient way to make system wide adjustments Necessary to enter control unit specifications Can be set for simulation mode for testing purpose

Goals of the Project l Automated scanning – l Manual scanning – l Pre-defined parameters for scanning Operator can set process parameters Data Acquisition

Project Responsibilities l l l Ø Anton – block diagram for actual scanning Erica – block diagram for direction, moving speed, acceleration Samir – precision requirement for scanning Different sections for the reports and presentations were assigned to each group member, but the work of each member was compiled together in a cohesive manner.

Project Timetable Week Date Plan 5 2/27 Project presentation 1, revise report 1, intial Lab. VIEW work. 6 3/05 Written report 1, continue initial Lab. VIEW work. 7 3/12 8 3/19 Work on individual responsibilities for automated scanning and gather block diagrams and front panel for each part of project. Start initial work for manual scanning. 9 3/26 10 4/02 Complete automated scanning and prepare for project presentation 2, continue work on manual scanning. 11 4/09 Project presentation 2 and prepare report 2. 12 4/16 Written report 2, revise automated scanning block diagrams and front panel and continue working on manual scanning. 13 4/23 Revise manual scanning block diagrams and front panel and start preparing for final presentation and report, debug Lab. VIEW code. 14 4/30 Debug Lab. VIEW code. 15 5/08 Debug Lab. VIEW code, finish preparing for final presentation and report. 16 5/14 Final presentation and report.

Front Panel l l User interface that contains controls and indicators Controls – – – l Knobs Push buttons Dials File selection Exit button for disaster recovery Indicators – – – Graphs LEDs Data display

Front Panel

Main VI Components 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Idle state Intensity Map Step Motor A Step Motor B Display of Scanned Well Home Position Speed and Scan Interval Load Position Precision

Block Diagram of Main VI l l l Each of the main VI can be called individually from the front panel even though they are stacked together Each VI has been built with multi-layer or sub-VI Example: Motor control A MT sub-VI built with several sub-VIs (get SN, start MT ctrl) error sub-VI and command sub. VI

Motor References l Pre-set motor references but user can change settings

1. Intensity Map

Intensity Plot

2. Step Motor A

3. Step Motor B

4. Display of Scanned Well l l Scanned well will be displayed via graph with its XY coordination Time stamp will be displayed for scanned time

Home Position l l Allows user to reset to initial position of (0, 0) Both controllers need to be initialized before starting the program

Home Position Block Diagram

Speed and Acceleration l l Automated scanning – preset Manual scanning – defined

Set Running State

Load Position l l Resume scanning after pausing Load position and precision can be controlled from front panel

8. Precision

Data Acquisition l Data will be stored at user defined location in text (lvm) format

Test Results l Stages configuration – – NTR 100 E Enc Stage A, 100 mm (Serial No 90811662) into Channel 1 NTR 150 E Enc Stage B, 150 mm (Serial No 90811663) into Channel 2

Manual Scanning l l Motor can be initiated by adding correct serial number from the front panel After a few seconds, sub-VI of motor control will be displayed This is an Active. X component of Lab. VIEW From this faceplate, speed, scan interval, direction, home, and jog sequence can be controlled

Manual Scanning Results l l l Useful information through error code panel No error was observed Manual scanning was successful

Automatic Scanning l Motors A and B have to be activated or initialized - It moves its predefined speed with preset interval - It works without interruption but with 10003 error code - Error was send to THORLABS to be investigated

Automatic Scanning

Initial Position and Optimize Position l l Lab. VIEW was terminated with this error message These commands are not operating because of lack of hardware component

Discussion l l l Manual scanning can be controlled via front panel In order to perform automated scanning, two channel step motors are required Automated scanning was not executed successfully due to lack of hardware component USB connections are not the ideal set up for high sensitive scanning Active. X component for THORLABS in Lab. VIEW doesn’t work 100% Similar discrepancy has been observed in Analog Device’s BLACKFIN communication with Lab. VIEW

Recommendations l l l Need to have the all the components prior to Lab. VIEW programming in order to avoid unnecessary Lab. VIEW coding and debugging Initiate both channels for auto-connection Avoid USB connections

Conclusions l l l Although we do not have appropriate hardware for automated scanning, manual scanning work as desired By using our program, microtiter plates can be scanned for biosensor applications Further testing is necessary with all hardware components