Hamilton Microlab PuriFY

The Hamilton Microlab PuriFY is a small benchtop instrument that automates magnetic-bead nucleic acid clean-up and size selection. Hamilton positions it for NGS library preparation and post-PCR work, and describes it as a compact, standalone solution for automated nucleic acid bead-based clean-up. It is not a general-purpose liquid handler: it does one family of jobs, and it does them with dedicated Hamilton consumables rather than an open deck.

What makes it unusual is how the liquid is moved. Hamilton calls the underlying method MagPore, their patented magnetic bead technology. Samples go into a Microlab PuriFY 8-well Strip, magnetic racks capture the beads against the vessel wall, the strip is sealed, and positive pressure pushes the supernatant out through a pore in the base of each vessel into a liquid waste container. Washing works the same way — micro-dispense capillaries deliver ethanolic wash buffer above the vessels and pressure removes it while the beads stay captured. For elution, buffer is dispensed and two magnetic racks move alternately up and down so the beads travel repeatedly through the solution; the eluate is then propelled through the pore into target labware positioned below.

There is no PC. Hamilton state the instrument is operated through a built-in touchscreen with no additional computer required, running what they describe as a built-in closed software solution. That single fact shapes everything about integrating it, and it is worth reading the Integration section below before planning a cell around one. Hamilton also state plainly that the Microlab PuriFY is for research use only.

At a glance

What it does	Magnetic-bead nucleic acid clean-up, magnetic-bead size selection, quick dispense of buffers into PCR plates
Samples per run	1–96 (one strip covers up to 8 samples)
Source consumable	Microlab PuriFY 8-well Strip (Hamilton only)
Footprint	430 mm wide × 442 mm deep × 430 mm high
Weight	Approx. 33 kg
Operation	Built-in touchscreen; no additional computer required
Regulatory	Research use only
Revolution control	One operation — run a named purify method

Specifications

Hamilton publish a short specification table on the Microlab PuriFY product page, and fill in the rest through their own Knowledge Center FAQ. Everything below is from those two Hamilton sources.

Buffer positions	Buffer compartment has room for two different buffers
UV	Yes — the combined micro-dispense and positive pressure head can be irradiated by UV light
Connectivity	Ethernet; Wi-Fi; 2 × USB Type A (USB 3.0, one front, one rear); 2 × USB Type C (USB 2.0, one front, one rear)
Instrument software	Built-in closed software solution with a touchscreen interface
Run time, 24 samples	Approx. 35 minutes (Hamilton’s example: NEBNext® Ultra™ II DNA Library Preparation Kit for Illumina®)
Run time, 96 samples	Approx. one hour
Hamilton-only consumables	Microlab PuriFY Strips, Buffer Bottles, Waste Container

Hamilton note that run times vary with the number of steps, incubation times, volumes and liquid classes, and that high volumes and viscous solutions take longer. Treat the 35-minute and one-hour figures as Hamilton’s stated examples for a specific kit, not as a cycle time you can schedule against — a schedule that has to hand the instrument’s output to a downstream device should be timed against your own protocol.

The specification that actually decides an integration is the strip. Hamilton state that a complete Microlab PuriFY Strip must be loaded even when fewer than eight samples are being processed, and that the user selects which positions of the strip to process. Strips, buffer bottles and the waste container are available only from Hamilton. So the instrument’s consumable loading is a fixed, Hamilton-shaped operation — not something a generic plate mover can be pointed at without deliberate design. Note also that Hamilton do not publish a remote-control or scheduling API for this instrument; the connectivity list above is a list of physical ports, not of published control interfaces.

Supported methods

The Revolution driver has a single operation.

• Purify — run a clean-up method on the instrument
  • purifyMethod (string) — the name of the method to run

That single string is the whole of the interface. It identifies a protocol that already exists on the instrument — Hamilton ship pre-installed content (a biologically qualified protocol for size selection and clean-up with the NEBNext Ultra II kit, plus Clean-Up, Size-Selection and Dispense templates), and the instrument’s own software is where protocols are developed and edited. Revolution names one; it does not author, upload or parameterise them.

The driver is currently a stub. The device class, the Revolution device registration and the Purify operation signature are all in place, but the operation body is empty — it does not yet open a transport, send anything to the instrument, or wait on a result. There are no device properties, no pre-pick or pre-place behaviour, and no telemetry. This page documents the shape of the integration, not a working one.

Integration

Revolution does not currently reach the Microlab PuriFY at all. There is no transport in the driver, and there is no vendor SDK hosted in the Revolution process for this device.

That is a consequence of the instrument rather than an oversight. Hamilton describe the Microlab PuriFY’s software as a built-in closed solution, operated from its own touchscreen with no additional computer, and publish no remote-control interface for it. A scheduled integration therefore depends on a control interface being available from Hamilton for a given instrument and software version — that is the first thing to establish, before any cell design work.

Prerequisites

• A control interface from Hamilton. Hamilton publish no remote-control or scheduling API for the Microlab PuriFY. Confirm with Hamilton what is available for your instrument and software version before designing a schedule around it.
• The methods the schedule will name must already exist on the instrument. Revolution passes a method name; protocols are developed and edited in the instrument’s own software.
• Hamilton consumables. Microlab PuriFY Strips, Buffer Bottles and the Waste Container are available only from Hamilton, and a complete strip must be loaded even for fewer than eight samples.
• Manual loading of samples, buffers and labware is part of Hamilton’s described workflow, along with the instrument’s own load checks for liquid levels, strip presence and labware. Plan the cell around who does that, and when.
• Buffer and waste capacity for the run, and somewhere for the operator to reach them between runs.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
—	The driver defines no device properties. There is nothing to configure.

If you need more of this instrument driven from a schedule, get in touch — the driver is extended on demand.