Umbilical cord sample prep with the Omni LH 96 automated homogenizer workstation for protein quantification

A technology that has significantly advanced laboratory workflows is automation, which improves throughput capacity and maintains analytical reproducibility assisted by robotic repeatability. This also includes the use of automated homogenizers and workstations within workflows that starts with complex and tough matrices, including hard tissues such as umbilical cords as they can be very fibrous and cartilaginous in their structure and composition. In many analytical assays, the downstream data depends largely on the quality of starting input, including analyte yield and purity for DNA, RNA, and proteins.

This application note covers the use of the Omni LH 96 automated homogenizer workstation with the following:

• Material & methods for an integrated and walk-away solution for sample weighing, dilution / buffer addition by pipetting, homogenization, and tube-to-plate reformatting to efficiently process umbilical cord tissues.
• Homogenizing parameters and touch-off probe parameters are noted
• Total protein concentration are provided for a range of starting umbilical cord tissue inputs (125 - 750 mg) using the 12 mm Hard Tissue Omni Tips (single-use probes).

These findings underscore the platform’s use to generate consistent homogenates for high-throughput protein extraction that could feed into a number of different protein detection assays, as well as analytical chemistry techniques such as mass spec.

For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.