Fig. 1

The Cell X Robotic platform for automated generation of iPSCs from primary dermal fibroblasts. A The Cell X platform consists of a robotic liquid handling system (A1–A3, & A6) mounted on a commercially available inverted fluorescent microscope (A7). Up to two standard multi-well plates can be placed on the system (A5), which is capable of imaging the cultures, performing media exchanges, weeding unwanted cells and picking iPSC colonies, which can then be transferred into different wells or plates. A1 = syringe pump, A2 = aspiration pump, A3 = media dispense pump head, A4 = disposable micro pipette tips for both the syringe and aspiration pumps, A5 = robotic stage that holds two multi-well cell culture plates, A6 = peristaltic pumps which supply media to A3, A7 = automated microscope. B The Cell X platform has robust liquid handling capabilities, enabled by a robotic syringe pump (B1) for picking and weeding, an aspiration pump (B2) for removing media as well as three dispensing pumps (B3) for adding culture media and other liquid reagents to individual wells. C Dispensing of liquid reagents and aspiration is accomplished using software controlled peristaltic pumps. D Three different liquid reagents can be placed into wells via separate dispensing needles. E Both the syringe and aspiration pump use disposable micropipette tips to ensure aseptic cell culture conditions and to prevent cross-contamination between samples. F–J The automated imaging capabilities of the Cell X platform enable the growth of individual iPSC colonies to be monitored over time. K During this study we have used the Cell X to generate 21 iPSC lines from dermal fibroblast samples obtained from both male and female patients between the ages of 14 and 88 who have disease causing mutations in several different genes