New!! Arrayit SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayers provide the market's most advanced personal microarrayers, featuring our patented contact printing technology installed in more than 4,200 laboratories worldwide. SpotBot® 4 Microarrayers empower DNA, oligonucleotide, amplicon, BAC, antibody, antigen, peptide, carbohydrate, small molecule, lipid, cell extract and whole cell microarray manufacturing in minutes on your desktop for genotyping, gene expression, protein expression profiling, protein binding, and myriad other microarray applications. Large OEM arrangements permit the integration of your microarray manufacturing application into our time-tested personal microarray platform. SpotBot® 4 systems include a BioBlue personal computer, LED display, keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, cables and accessories for easy installation.

SpotBot® 4 System Specifications and Features

• SpotBot® 4 instruments represent a significant advance over earlier SpotBot® 1-3
• Extra heavy duty gantry offers improved precision, speed and durability
• Arrayit patented contact printing technology (U.S. 6,101,946) adds confidence
• Vision System option allows high-resolution printing on custom substrates and devices
• Professional series printhead permits precision pin guidance for precise rows and columns
• Four printing pins configured in a 2 x 2 pattern at 4.5 mm spacing
• Professional series printhead reduces friction and allows minimal force contact printing
• Axis resolution and repeatability of ±10 µm
• Deck accommodates 14 standard glass substrate slides (1 x 25 x 76 mm)
• Deck accommodates 1 microplate (384-wells)
• Complete deck and microplate cooling from ambient to 4°C for Protein Edition
• Complete deck and microplate heating from ambient to 45°C for “HotBot”€ Edition
• Humidity control option from 10-80% relative humidity (RH)
• Megasonic Wash Station option enhances pin cleaning
• Compatible with all professional, 946 and Stealth microarray printing pins
• Printing routines allow 1-5 technical replicates per sample
• 3,600 spots per sub-microarray (9 x 9 mm)
• 50,400 spots per entire substrate (18 x 63 mm)
• Printing time of 2 hrs per 384-well microplate
• >1,000 samples in 6 hours
• Runs on Microsoft Windows 7
• Power requirements: Standard 120-volt or 220 volt outlets
• Ease-of-operation via new version 4 Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• SpotBot® 4 size (H x L x W): 29 cm (11.5 in) x 30 cm (11.8 in) x 30 cm (11.8 in)
• SpotBot® 4 weight: 6.2 Kg (13.6 lbs)
• Private branding, OEM agreements and large volume pricing available
• World’s only truly portable desktop microarrayers
• World’s only turnkey desktop protein microarray manufacturing systems
• Create a miniature “cold room”€ on your desktop with 4°C Protein Edition deck cooling option
• Flow-through liquid cooled platen maximizes deck cooling speed, efficiency and uniformity
• Systems shipped with factory calibration for ease of set-up and use
• Micro-robotics enable precision motion control in a highly compact footprint
• Near zero thermal emission, ultra-low energy consumption, and quiet operation
• Rapid flow wash station and forced air pin drying enables efficient pin cleaning
• Humidity control of 5% per minute and ±1 % at steady state
• Minimal wash buffer consumption of <1.0 liter per 8 hours of operation
• Minimal air turbulence virtually eliminates sample evaporation during printing
• Vibration dampeners allow high printing quality in any laboratory
• Class 1 cleanroom compatible
• 400+ installations worldwide
• World’s most popular personal microarrayer product line
• Customer Installation time of 1 hour
• Continuous on-line technical support via email and Skype

Quick Installation Guide
1. Wear nitrile gloves at all times when handling your SpotBot® 4.
2. Unpack your shipment and place all items on the lab bench.
3. Place the SpotBot® 4 at the front of the bench and carefully remove the packing material from the instrument compartment.
4. Place the ACM 20 cm directly behind the SpotBot® 4 instrument.
5. Place the computer, LED screen, keyboard, mouse and mouse pad either to the left or right of the SpotBot® 4 instrument.
6. Connect the color-coded ACM fittings (red, white and blue) to the color-coded wash station fittings (red, white and blue).
7. Connect the megasonic transducer wire (PRO and HOT instruments) to the threaded wash station fitting.
8. Connect the green ACM fitting to the 1L Wash Buffer Reservoir and place to the right of the ACM.
9. Connect the yellow ACM fitting to the 1L Wash Waste Container and place it on the floor beneath the SpotBot® 4 instrument.
10. Connect the USB data cable to the back of the computer and SpotBot® 4 instrument.
11. Connect the 12 volt power supply to the back of the SpotBot® 4 instrument.
12. Place the blue anti-vibration pads under the four feet of the SpotBot® 4 instrument.
13. Place the black anti-vibration pads under the four feet of the ACM.
14. Connect the power supply to the back of the ACM and gently tighten the threaded screws.
15. Connect the DVI cable, keyboard, mouse and Ethernet cable to the back of the computer.
16. Connect the other end of the Ethernet cable to an Internet port and the other end of the DVI cable to the LED monitor.
17. Connect the electrical plugs for the SpotBot® 4 power supply and ACM power supply to a 110 volt or 222 volt power strip.
18. Connect the electrical plugs for the computer and LED monitor to a 110 volt or 222 volt power strip.
19. Fill the 1L Wash Buffer Reservoir with 1,000 ml of SpotBot® 4 Wash Buffer.
20. Power on the ACM and make sure wash buffer is filling the wash station inside the SpotBot® 4 instrument.
21. Power on the computer and screen and launch SpotBot® 4 SpotApp software by clicking on the desktop icon.
22. Register your SpotBot® 4 instrument using our secure Ethernet server connection.
23. Use SpotApp to select your test printing routine on the computer desktop.
24. Follow the commands on the screen to run your test printing routine.
25. After 5-10 minutes of the test printing routine, terminate the test print run.
26. Place a 384-well microplate containing 4-8 µl sample per well in the SpotBot® 4 microplate position.
27. Make sure the microplate spring is adding tension against the side of the plate containing well A1.
27. Place 14 glass substrate slides (1 x 25 x 76 mm) on the SpotBot® 4 deck as two columns of 7 slides.
28. Place the L-bracket on the deck to hold the slides in position.
29. Make sure the L-bracket is held in place by the L-bracket spring and is firmly pressing against both slide columns.
30. Launch the SpotApp software and select your test printing routine on the desktop.
31. When printhead moves to the left, open the left door and carefully load 4 x 946MP4 pins into the printhead.
32. Wear nitrile gloves at all times when handling pins and carefully remove the pin caps by pulling straight off before loading into the printhead.
33. Click OK and run the test printing routine to completion.
34. After the print run is complete, inspect the glass slides under a 20-30X microscope to confirm your samples have printed.
35. Contact Arrayit technical support (arrayit@arrayit.com) if you have any questions.

Arrayit SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer with Protein Edition option including custom thermal deck and chiller bath for 4°C to ambient temperature control ideal for protein and reverse phase microarrays. The “HotBot” option permits 4°C to 45°C temperature control for protein microarrays as well as enzyme and whole celll microarrays requiring heating to 37°C.

Table 1. SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer System Components and Options.

Scientific Publications
Click on the links to find more than 300 scientific publications featuring Arrayit SpotBot® Personal Microarrayers.

Figure 1. SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer in the home€ position. The printed circuit board (middle left) enables fully automated computer-control. The professional printhead (center) contains a calibration pin in the first of 4 pin apertures.

Figure 2.  SpotBot® 4 wash station uses wash buffer from the ACM peristaltic pump to clean the 4 pins during printing. The optional megasonic wash station transmits megasonic waves through the wash buffer for enhanced pin cleaning. The dry ports to the right of the wash station use pressurized air from the ACM air compressor to dry the pins after the wash steps.

Figure 3. SpotBot® 4 in the sample loading position. The professional series printhead and four 946MP4 microarray printing pins load the first group of 4 wells in the 384-well microplate. Each pin loads 0.25 µl of sample from each well containing a 5 µl total sample volume

Figure 4. SpotBot® 4 Protein Edition Microarrayer printing dilutions of ArrayIt® Green540 and Red640 fluorescent dyes with four 946MP4 pins and a professional series printhead. Samples were printed in quintuplicate at 200 µm spot spacing. The uniformity of the rows and columns of printed spots reveals the excellent printing performance of the SpotBot® 4. Space bar = 500 µm.

Figure 5. SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer printing multiple microarrays per substrate slide using one 946MP4 microarray printing pin at 175 µm spot spacing printing on SuperAmine (Cat. SMM) microarray substrate slides. A total of 24 microarrays per substrate were printed using the Multiple Microarray Format SpoCLe Generator version 1.1.02 downloadable at http://spotsupport.com.

Figure 6.  SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer Multiple Microarray Format SpoCLe Generator version 1.1.02 allows the printing of multiple microarrays per substrate. The user selects the well pattern (number of microarrays), spot spacing in microns, print offsets in millimeters, and subgrid dimensions as columns and rows. The software then generates a graphic showing how the printed microarrays (orange icons) will appear on the substrate slides. The Multiple Microarray Format SpoCLe Generator version 1.1.02 is downloadable at http://spotsupport.com.

Figure 7. SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer professional series printhead and four 946MP4 microarray printing pins shown in the printing position on the instrument deck. An overtravel distance of 0.5 mm is used to ensure efficient printing onto each glass substrate slide. The SpotBot® 4 Protein Edition option allows deck cooling from ambient to 4°C to enhance the stability of printed proteins, reverse phase protein microarray (RPPA) extracts, and other sensitive samples. The SpotBot® 4 HotBot Edition option allows deck cooling and heating from 4°C to 45°C to enhance the stability of printed proteins, reverse phase protein microarray (RPPA) extracts, and enable enzymatic and whole cell applications requiring 37°C deck heating.

Figure 8. SpotBot® 4 printing into a 96-well glass bottom microplate using software downloadable at www.spotsupport.com. Microplate printing requires the microplate L-bracket locator (Cat. MLS) to hold the microplate and two pre-print substrate slides in postion during printing. System calibration is required prior to initiating microplate printing. Please do not attempt microplate printing without system calibration.

Figure 9. SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer with a pofessional series printhead and four 946MP4 microarray printing pins in the safe Z position over the glass substrate slides. The substrate locator L-bracket immobilizes the substrate slides on the platen during printing using the substrate tensioner spring (middle right).

Figure 10. SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer Vision System with high-resolution digital camera, tripod, and custom software interface to view and record absolute positional coordinates on the printing deck. The Vision System allows visualization of microscopic substrate elements such as 100 µm microelectrodes (see insert) using a digital camera with 10 µm spatial resolution. This option is highly recommended for aerospace, bio-engineering and material science applications.

Figure 11. SpotBot® 4 Personal Microarrayer Accessory Control Module (ACM) including connections from left-to-right for the megasonic wash station, humidty control, peristaltic pump, pin drying station, power switch and ACM power supply (rear left). The megasonic cable should be connected to the threaded connector on the wash station and the peristaltic and dry station connections are color-coded as follows: peristaltic wash buffer inward flow to 1 liter wash buffer reservoir (green-green), peristaltic wash buffer inward flow to wash station inward flow (white-white), peristaltic wash waste outward flow to wash station outward flow (blue-blue), peristaltic wash waste outward flow to 1 liter wash waste container (yellow-yellow), and dry station forced air stream to dry station pin drying port (red-red). ACM anti-vibration pads should be placed under the 4 ACM feet as shown. Connect all ACM connections to the SpotBot® 4 prior to powering on the ACM and power off the ACM after each use. The SpotBot® 4 software should be launched prior to powering on the ACM to prevent software complications arising from power surges.