Large-Scale qDBS Testing Possible With PA496

Capitainer recently launched a fully automated quantitative DBS sample handling system that enables large-scale screening and diagnostics using the company’s dried blood spot self-sampling devices. The new system, named PA496, reduces the number of manual steps required when preparing Capitainer samples for analysis, thus saving valuable time and personnel resources. The first PA496 unit has already been installed in the Affinity Proteomics-Stockholm Unit at SciLifeLab, a leading Swedish research centre within life sciences, medicine, and the environment.

Dried blood spot (DBS) testing is a microsampling method based on dried spots of whole blood, which has been widely used in newborn screening programmes, metabolic disease monitoring, e.g., phenylketonuria, therapeutic drug monitoring, phosphatidylethanol (PEth) blood alcohol testing, and others.

Because of its minimally invasive nature, DBS testing provides an attractive alternative to many diagnostic and medical screening procedures that are based on venous blood draws, particularly for children, vulnerable individuals, or individuals requiring regular testing. Another major advantage of DBS testing is that is it suitable for at-home or remote use, since it can be done without the presence of a trained phlebotomist.

The number of applications in which DBS testing is used is expanding, and the benefits of scalability and precision are becoming increasingly apparent. For example, a recent study found that remote DBS sampling greatly increased access to COVID-19 diagnostics in rural Sweden (1). Another study, from the UK, which focused on the use of DBS testing in PKU monitoring, found that volumetric DBS sampling devices were superior to conventional DBS cards on all parameters tested, and that of three devices tested, Capitainer’s DBS device was the most precise in repeated biomarker measurements, and least vulnerable to concentration-dependent bias compared to liquid blood (2).

The rise in DBS testing calls for automation in sample handling, to allow testing laboratories to meet sharp peaks in demand, e.g., due to infectious disease outbreaks, and so that DBS testing can be used at scale in place of venous blood sampling when relevant. To meet this demand, Capitainer and Intema have co-developed the PA496 (or Pre-analytical Automation 4×96 for Capitainer®) system, an automated quantitative DBS sample handling unit that can process up to 400 DBS samples at a time.

PA496 – A fully automated quantitative DBS solution for larger laboratories

The PA496 was designed with a focus on larger laboratories that process hundreds of samples per day, collected in one of Capitainer’s volumetric DBS sampling devices. The system is also well suited to sites that occasionally perform larger studies with larger batches of samples. The quantitative DBS devices are card-based and used with an appropriate lancet to puncture the fingertip and draw capillary blood. The sample card measures a precise volume of blood that is automatically dried in a protected paper disc contained inside the device. The sample can then be sent as non-hazardous post by regular mail at ambient temperature to the appropriate testing lab.

The PA496 transfers the sample discs from the Capitainer device to designated wells in 96-well plates, with full automation through a gripper arm, automatic barcode scanning and sample detection. The PA496 is compatible with different types of 96 well plates and can handle four plates at a time: two feeder stacks for cards to be processed, and two output stacks for handled cards. The system is also equipped with an inbuilt camera that photographs each sample for full sample traceability.

The software that was designed for the PA496 enables the user to customise how the sample spots are distributed to the four 96 well plates that the system can hold. For example, in some applications, two sample spots might be needed in a single well, while in other cases duplicate plates with one sample spot in each plate may be useful where one sample spot is used for analysis and the other is returned to the output stack for biobanking.

Increased efficiency and quality assurance with automated sample handling

By removing the need for manual sample handling, the PA496 mitigates the risk of human error that comes with managing large sample volumes, while laboratory personnel gain walk-away time for other laboratory tasks as the robot prepares the Capitainer® samples for downstream elution.

Specific pre-analytical laboratory units can prepare cards received via standard postal service into the designated stacks and deliver to the analytical units at the laboratory, building efficient workflows in the laboratory. The average estimated processing time for a single 96 well plate is 15 miuntes. In addition, sample barcoding allows testing laboratories to implement quality assurance procedures for full sample identification and data traceability.

Speaking about the PA496, Claudia Fredolini, Head of the Affinity Proteomics Unit at SciLifeLab, says:

“This new instrument allows us to manage large-scale studies in a very efficient and quality assured way. We have worked with Capitainer samples for several years and developed methods for analysis on many different platforms. Now we can work on major projects where our infrastructure and expertise can help bring about new advances in research.”

Get in touch with us here for an informal discussion or to learn more about how the PA496 could benefit your laboratory.

The PA496 has been developed in partnership with Intema, which also manufactures the system. The PA496 is produced exclusively for Capitainer.

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