Copan Diagnostics Inc, Murrieta, Calif, recently unveiled its Colibri system, an open platform capable of utilizing consumables prepared in house or manufactured by a number of different suppliers. The platform can work in-line with the company’s WaspLab microbiology specimen processor or as a standalone workstation to automatically prepare infectious disease and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) suspensions. Colibri automatically picks bacterial colonies for further workup and investigation, based upon digital coordinates previously specified by laboratory technologists. It can seed matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) target plates into various size tubes and bottles to prepare McFarland suspensions. Its onboard nephelometer automatically checks the opacity of the McFarland suspensions and prepares a plate to check the purity of the bacterial growth prepared in the McFarland suspension tube. Colibri can also seed mass spectrometry MALDI-TOF target plates for the Maldi Biotyper from Bruker Corp and the Vitek mass spectrometer from bioMérieux, and automatically sends instructions and coordinates to build the worksheets. Additionally, the system can handle offline plates not previously managed by full laboratory automation, and colonies can be manually designated for picking using an onboard camera and touch screen. The system automatically applies barcode labels. For more information, visit AACC booth 2945 or Copan.
