The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston uses the Systec Mediaprep and Systec Mediafill System: cost minimization, time savings and optimal teaching conditions in biological education.
As part of a sound medical-biological university education, it is essential to allow students to work directly on samples and culture media. For this purpose, hundreds of McConkey plates are loaded with agar culture media every year in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the McGovern Medical School of the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth). Since the Systec Mediaprep media preparator has been used in conjunction with the Systec Mediafill dosing and dispensing system, the teaching staff has benefited from a drastic reduction in time and resources. At the same time, the students are provided with optimal working material thanks to uniformly loaded Petri dishes.
Until the acquisition of the two Systec devices, the Petri dishes in the microbiology and molecular genetics faculty at UTHealth were still poured by hand.
For the BTAs and assistants, this meant that they often spent entire days preparing agar plates for future seminars, often even during vacations. In addition, the plates could only be poured rather imprecisely, as minimal deviations are possible when dosing the agar culture media by eye.
The appointment of a new lecturer was a turning point for the Faculty of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics: The lecturer had already worked with Systec equipment at her previous university. As part of her starting package, she negotiated with the faculty management to also work with our machines at UTHealth. A Systec Mediaprep-10 and a matching Systec Mediafill dosing and dispensing system were finally purchased through our dealer Microbiology International.
Thanks to the precise Systec technology, hundreds of media preparations can now be prepared in the department within a very short time and distributed in exact doses to the appropriate Petri dishes - all fully automatically. With the Systec Mediaprep-10 media preparator, up to 10 liters of liquid culture media can be prepared in a single step (Systec Mediaprep devices with larger volumes are also available), including continuous mixing with a magnetic stirrer and the addition of additives via a separate feed opening. An integrated PT-100 temperature sensor ensures that validatable results are achieved during subsequent sterilization before the culture medium is distributed sterilely onto the plates.
The Systec Mediafill system is then used to add the culture medium to the Petri dishes. The filling and stacking of the Petri dishes is fully automated. Supervision or intervention by the operator is not necessary, which saves a lot of time for UTHealth employees. The system also saves resources: the high-precision dosing capability - e.g. to exactly 25 ml - saves agar that was previously lost due to inaccurate measurements when feeding by hand.
In addition, employees who regularly work with the Systec devices praise the high-quality workmanship of the devices and their intuitive operation via the integrated 5.7-inch touch display. The professional support provided by the dealer Microbiology International has in turn helped to familiarize the teachers with the operation of the device and dispel any questions they may have had.
In addition to professional laboratories, Systec solutions also represent an optimization of work processes and products for corresponding departments at universities and other teaching institutions. In particular, institutes that frequently work with large quantities of culture media preparations can save time and resources. And, of course, they benefit from the comprehensive range of services offered by Systec and our distributors.