Hi everyone, I’d just like to do a few quick introductions.

Thank you very much for coming. My name is James Bond, and I’m the Western Regional Sales Manager at Dynamic Devices.

It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the second day of our Spotlight Presentations. We’ll be featuring six impressive presentations, each showcasing a diverse range of applications using the Lynx™ System.

I’d like to thank all six of our presenters for the time and effort they put into creating their presentations, and for joining us today to share their insights.

To stay on schedule, I’ll keep this brief. I believe it’s more valuable for you to hear directly from the presenters. Each presentation will be 20 minutes long.

I’ll begin with this short introduction and then set a 15-minute timer. After that, I’ll set another timer at 18 minutes. Presenters will have 15 minutes to present, 3 minutes to wrap up, and 2 minutes at the end for questions.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to grab my business card — they’re available on the tables.

Without further ado, I’d like to introduce Jason Dugas.

Jason is the Automation Laboratory Facilities Manager of the Discovery and Pharmacology Group at Denali Therapeutics.

Jason, you’ve been at Denali for about eight years, correct? Yes.

He works with the Lynx System, and today he’ll be discussing flexible automation of plate-based silicon membrane RNA and DNA purification using the Lynx™.

Jason, go ahead and pull up your presentation — just click the screen.

Thank you very much, James, for inviting me to speak today. As mentioned, my name is Jason Dugas, and I work at Denali Therapeutics. I’ve been with the company for about eight years and currently serve as Director and Staff Scientist, managing both our Automated Lab Facility and Assay Development Group.

Like many of you, I didn’t start in automation — I came from a research background and transitioned into automation over the past 10 years. Since Denali is a smaller company, my team often builds “Swiss Army Knives” rather than highly specialized high-throughput devices. That means we aim for flexible systems that can handle multiple workflows — often eight different protocols in a single week — for a range of users.

With that in mind, I developed a protocol for the Lynx™ System, which allows for flexible hardware configuration. Rather than installing permanent modules, I created a method where components can be added or removed depending on the application — whether it’s cell culture, normalization, or serial dilutions.

Quick shoutout to the team at Dynamic Devices — the Lynx™ System offers some of the best error handling I’ve ever experienced. Compared to systems like Hamilton, the ability to easily recover from user errors with command-line controls and resume mid-protocol is outstanding.

Now, I was tasked with building a semi-automated protocol for RNA and DNA purification from a wide array of biological sources. For this, I used QIAGEN’s silicon membrane kits. While I don’t have a video demo, I did bring a physical prop — a 96-well plate array — to illustrate the process.

The upstream lysis step was left to individual users since inputs can vary: tissues, cells, etc. The convergence point for automation is when lysates are transferred to 96-deep well plates, where we take over with ethanol addition, mixing, and plate transfers.

Special thanks to Ben and Scott, who helped with multiple iterations of the vacuum base that makes this system work seamlessly with the Lynx™ deck. Working with Dynamic Devices has been a great experience.

The final solution uses a vacuum-based system — no deck manipulation needed. We used a standard SBS footprint base with a silicone seal, vacuum lines routed below the deck, and a color-coded four-to-one manifold to allow for modular setups.

While we initially tested positive pressure using the 9.6 VVP Head, we ultimately chose vacuum because it gave us faster flow rates and simplified the workflow. The vacuum setup also eliminates the need to switch between adapters and pipette tips.

Each setup supports up to 384 preps at once with rapid flow-through, and the back-end manifold allows users to activate between one to four rigs simultaneously using color-coded tubing.

Here’s how the protocol works:

• Start with chloroform-extracted lysates in 96-deep well plates.

• Users input sample volume, elution volume, and number of sample plates (1–4).

• Each sample gets a 2x volume of ethanol, pulled from a common reservoir using dedicated tips.

• The system accounts for large volumes by automatically splitting transfers if needed.

• Timers ensure adequate incubation and flow-through before proceeding to wash steps.

• Tips aspirate wash buffers from a fixed height to prevent contamination and speed up processing.

• The protocol includes one RW1 Wash and two RPE Washes, following QIAGEN’s standard protocol.

One important note: we observed that neither positive nor negative pressure completely removes all liquid from the base of the plates due to a design feature — a collar that traps droplets. This can degrade sample quality if wash buffer remains. To fix this, we allow users to perform a quick centrifuge spin post-protocol using the original waste plates to ensure complete removal of residual liquid.