SCILA CO2 4-Position cell incubator by Inheco

Integrated Devices (Centrifuge, Washer, etc)
1

Does anyone here use the SCILA?

If so,

  1. Do you like it?
  2. What are some issues to be aware of?
  3. Automation friendly?
  4. Any competitors to look at as well?

Best,

2

Interested in this too.

3

I haven’t used it, but I was told by our Hamilton sales rep that only the bottom two of the four positions can be accessed when integrated directly. Accessing all four positions would require an external arm.

To my knowledge, the Inheco SCILA is the only incubator with atmospheric control (i.e. adjustable gas mixtures) that can be integrated directly with a liquild-handling robot. Note that it doesn’t shake.

If you only need incubation (and shaking), both Hamilton and Tecan offer incubator hotels with individual compartments, as does as separate product from Inheco.

4

Footprint wise, how big are those incubator hotels relative to SCILA?

Edit: also the accessibility part probably is different for a Tecan right? Different gripper options…

5

The Tecan MIO2 is significantly smaller:
https://forums.pylabrobot.org/t/mio-shaking-incubator-tower-experiences/942

https://www.google.com/search?q=tecan+mio2

And the Hamilton Incubator Shaker is, too;

Multiple units of the Inheco Single Plate Incubator for standard low-profile plates and/or deep-well blocks can be stacked:

Hamilton robots can only access the bottom two positions in an Inheco SCILA because the top two are too high for the iSWAP (on a STAR) or Integrated Plate Gripper (IPG, on a STAR V or VANTAGE).

6

The Tecan MIO2 isn’t a CO2 incubator, just temp controlled. Which is good for ELISAs or something similar but not suitable to cell culture/cell-based assay. That SCILA is really cool but I’m not quite sure of the exact application. By that I mean it’s only 4 plates, you could certainly have a bank of them, but at that rate why not have an actual automated incubator (Cytomat/Liconic).

7

Do the liconic or cytomats match the SCILA in terms of size?

I mean I guess if my use case changes, I could switch it up. That’s the beauty of modular frameworks.

8

No, Cytomat and Liconic incubators are off deck instruments that can be integrated into most larger liquid handlers or into workcells. Both are available in a variety of sizes, but generally you’re looking at anywhere from 40 plates to 1000 plates. So a very different use-case.

I have a hard time thinking of a use-case for a 4 plate CO2 incubator. In my experience most cell-based assays are pretty long, 12 hours at a minimum. So to only have space for 4 plates to incubate at a time seems like quite a bottleneck. Do you plan on integrating multiple SCILA incubators? Or is a 4-plate capacity large enough for your needs?