THE AMERICAN National Standards Institute (ANSI) has finalised accreditation of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Microplate Standard 6 for Well Bottom Elevation.
Known as ANSI/SLAS 6-2012, this new standard defines terminology and measurement protocols for well bottom elevation (WBE) and well bottom elevation variation (WBEV) microplates, and outlines the conditions required for making necessary measurements.
“This achievement represents years of painstaking work by the Microplate Standards Special Interest Group”, says SLAS president Dave Dorsett.
“ANSI/SLAS 6-2012 demonstrates our society’s commitment to scientific leadership” said Amer El-Hage, co-chair of the SLAS microplate standards special interest group.
In the 1990s, a need was identified for defined dimensional standards for microtiter plates (microplates). These plates were becoming essential and universal tools for drug discovery research, but little standardisation existed between manufacturers.
The growth of laboratory automation and robotic handling systems exacerbated these differences, leading to the adoption of four standard microplate patterns by the then Society for Biomolecular Sciences (SBS) in 2004.
This standard, ANSI/SBS 1-4 2004, is currently the subject of renewal discussions between SLAS and ANSI, and will become known as ANSI/SLAS 1-4 2012.