For some applications it can be important to be able to define regions of plates that allow you to direct specific liquids or types of liquids to. In Synthace it might be that you have two different elements each contributing a different set of liquids to the same assay. In this example we will show you how you can reuse defined plate sets across multiple elements.
Get started
Read the introduction to this series of tutorials, then complete all of the previous tutorials in the series. For more information, click here.
Create a workflow in the builder. To learn how, click here.
Rename the workflow Core elements tutorial 2.5. To learn how, click here.
Select the device on which you want to run your workflow. To learn how, click here.
Select a default plate type. To learn how, click here.
Define your liquids
First, you must define the liquids that you want to aliquot.
Open the Elements panel, search for Define Liquids And Plates, click the element to add it to the canvas, then click the element again to add a second instance.
On the canvas, click the first instance of the element to open a list of inputs to the element (i.e., a list of things that you can control).
From the Define From input, select Table Editor to expose some inputs that you can use to define your liquids, then click Add Spreadsheet to open the table editor.
Define some liquids, give them a tag called
Sample, then click Done. In the following example, we define 24 samples.On the canvas, click the second instance of the element to open a list of inputs to the element.
From the Define From input, select Parameters to expose some inputs that you can use to define your liquids.
In the Names input, click Add New Item, then specify the name
Control.
Aliquot the liquids to a plate set that you define
Open the Elements panel, search for Describe Layouts, then click the element to add it to the canvas.
On the canvas, click the element to open a list of inputs to the element.
Describe the plate set to which you want Synthace to allocate your aliquots. To do so, in Plate Set Names, specify a name for the plate set, then in Plate Types, select a plate type for the plates in the set.
Click Edit Plate Contents to open the Plate Contents Editor, in which you can specify which liquids should be in which wells.
Click and drag the cursor over the wells to which you want to allocate the liquids with the
Sampletag, click "Assign Liquid" and selectSampleas the liquid.
Click and drag the cursor over the wells to which you want to allocate
Control, click "Assign Liquid" and selectControlas the liquid.Open the Elements panel, search for Aliquot, click the element to add it to the canvas, then click the element again to add a second instance.
We need to pass the liquids that we defined in Define Liquids And Plates 1 to Aliquot 1, so that Aliquot 1 knows which liquids to aliquot.
To do so, click and drag the Liquids output from Define Liquids And Plates 1 to the Liquids To Aliquot input of Aliquot 1.
We need to pass the plates that we defined in Describe Layouts to Aliquot 1, so that Aliquot 1 knows where to aliquot the liquids.
To do so, click and drag the Described Layouts output from Describe Layouts to the Used Layouts input of Aliquot 1.
We need to pass the liquids that we defined in Define Liquids And Plates 2 to Aliquot 2, so that Aliquot 2 knows which liquids to aliquot.
To do so, click and drag the Liquids output from Define Liquids And Plates 2 to the Liquids To Aliquot input of Aliquot 2.
Finally, we need to tell Aliquot 2 which liquids were allocated to which wells in Aliquot 1, so that Aliquot 2 knows which wells are available.
To do so, click and drag the Updated Layouts output from Aliquot 1 to the Used Layouts input of Aliquot 2.
Click Aliquot 1, then specify the Aliquot Volume for every liquid as
50 uland the number of Replicates as3. Do the same for Aliquot 2.
Tip: Use
defaultto specify the volume and number of replicates for every liquid connected to an element.Click Aliquot 1. From Replicate Grouping, select
Keep Replicates Together. In Plate Set Names, specifyAssay Plateas the plate set. Do the same for Aliquot 2.
Simulate the workflow
Check that the device that you selected can follow the instructions that you prepared. To learn how, click here.
Preview the execution
After you simulate the workflow, click View Simulation to open the simulation details.
Open the Preview tab, then click through the steps to check that the instructions that Synthace has generated are correct.
Notice that Synthace has created the plate that we defined in Describe Layouts and, because we passed the plate to both Aliquot 1 and Aliquot 2, Synthace has allocated our samples and our control to the same plate, in the wells that we selected.