LI-COR Blot Washer

Automation for Western Blot Processing

• Automate multiple washes and secondary antibody incubation • Eliminate interruptions in your workday • Increase throughput • Improve reproducibility • Process up to 4 blots simultaneously

Washing blots with the LI-COR Blot Washer couldn’t be easier. Select a stored wash sequence, press the start button, and your Western blots are processed without the usual interruptions to manually start the next wash. Blot Washer not only automates tedious blot washing, but it can also automate secondary antibody addition and incubation.

Reproducible Program Control

Blot Washer dispenses and aspirates reagents according to user-defined wash sequences. Wash sequences provide program control for reproducible wash and incubation steps. Up to 20 different wash sequences can be stored, with 1 to 4 individually configurable steps per wash sequence. Wash sequences can perform wash, delay and incubate steps in any order to accomplish any typical blot washing task automatically.

When a new wash sequence is created, you are prompted to enter steps that match your protocol and a few values that define each step, such as wash buffer volume or wash cycle duration. The values entered to create a typical 4-step wash sequence are shown in the figure below. Aspiration at the end of each step is automatic, but buffer is always dispensed after wash steps to keep blots wet.

Application Versatility

The versatility of the Blot Washer comes from two dispense valves under program control. The first valve is typically used to dispense wash buffer, but can dispense other reagents. The second valve can dispense secondary antibodies, a second wash buffer, or other reagents.

Process Four Blots Simultaneously

The Blot Washer uses a monitored air pressure system to dispense reagents to the blot container(s) at approximately 2 ml/sec. House vacuum or a vacuum pump accessory aspirates waste reagents at approximately 5 ml/sec. When using multiple blot containers, Blot Washer automatically adjusts for the extra volume and time needed to dispense reagents or aspirate all containers. A quad dispensing harness is included that allows a wash sequence to be applied identically to up to four blots.

LI-COR Blot Washer includes a quad dispensing harness
for processing 1 to 4 blots simultaneously. Stovall Belly
Dancer® (shaker) is shown but not included.

Easily Adaptable

The dispensing and aspiration system used in the Blot Washer will work with the blot containers already in use in your lab. Additionally, ten LI-COR Western Incubation Boxes (two sizes) are supplied with the Blot Washer to accommodate common blot sizes.