Symmetric Well Design Standardizes Biological Assays
Most biological-based assays are performed in multi-well plates consisting of circular wells arranged in a tic-tac-toe pattern inside a rectangular plate. Although this design is universal, in practice it results in significant variability in experimental results across wells. For example, wells at the edges of the rectangle experience slightly different environmental conditions compared to those at the center resulting in subtle changes in evaporation rates that affect pH, solute concentration, and more. Depending on the nature of the biological assay, potentially ranging from hours to days or weeks, these inter-well differences introduce significant experimental error across the assay plate. Since well position influences assay results, the rectangular plate design also makes it difficult to split wells into technical replicates. Therefore, a common practice is to exclude some wells in the plate, resulting in increased cost and plastic waste.
Researchers at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology have developed a multi-well plate design by developing six-way radially symmetric multi-well plates that lower the experimental variability of laboratory, scientific, or technical assays. The innovative plate design packs circular wells into equilateral triangles that are arranged adjacent to each other forming a hexagonal pattern. Using this design, all circular wells in a traditional six-well plate are in the same orientation thereby eliminating inter-well variability. By optimizing the number of identical wells available per plate, this design also maximizes flexibility in experimental design thereby reducing cost and plastic waste.
Application
Performs laboratory, scientific or technical assays of biological samples with radially symmetric multi-well plates to reduce experimental variability and maximize plate performance
Advantages
- Constructs plates with six-way radial symmetry, allowing for more flexible experimental design by embedding more wells in identical environments
- Accommodates a greater number of experiments on the same plate, lowering experimental variability across plates
- Arranges wells efficiently in space, reducing the plastic requirements of plate manufacturing
Technology
The tic-tac-toe arrangement of circular wells in a traditional rectangular multi-well plate dictates that some wells in the plate occupy unique positions relative to others. Consequently, not all wells experience the same experimental conditions, causing significant variability in results across the plate. Importantly, the number of non-unique well positions increases dramatically as the number of wells also increases. Therefore, well-layout can significantly negatively impact the results of various biological and chemical procedures performed in traditional multi-well plates.
Radially symmetric multi-well plates designed by University of Florida scientists, which optimize the packing of circular wells, minimizes the number of unique well positions within the plate. This design enables a greater number of experiments on the same plate in the same environment, providing less inter-well variation across each plate compared to traditional rectangular multi-well plates.
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