Advancing paediatric cancer research with pipetting technology

University Children’s Hospital Zurich researchers are accelerating their paediatric cancer research through the use of Integra Biosciences’ ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot. This advanced technology is streamlining and semi-automating the cell seeding process, which is vital for studying cancer metabolism in children and developing innovative chemotherapies for young patients.

The University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Switzerland’s largest paediatric and paediatric surgery centre, is renowned globally for its expertise in child healthcare. The hospital's oncology research group is at the forefront of studying paediatric cancer metabolism both at the cellular level and within whole organisms. Their research aims to pinpoint metabolic vulnerabilities caused by genetic mutations and develop targeted treatments to improve patient outcomes and minimise genotoxic effects.

Since 2022, the team has been using the ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot to automate the seeding of cells from clinical samples into 96-well plates. These cells are essential for drug screening, survival assays, and live cell staining. Dr Raphael Morscher, Head of the Oncology Research Group, highlighted the benefits of this technology: “Previously, cell seeding was done manually, which introduced errors and limited our lab’s efficiency. The ASSIST PLUS has increased our throughput by up to 50% and significantly reduced variability between samples and plates through precise liquid dispensing. This consistency provides more reliable and repeatable results, which is essential for accelerating our research and developing effective treatments for paediatric cancers in the future.”

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