Automation is rapidly transforming the life sciences field, and benchtop liquid handling systems offer an ideal entry point for smaller laboratories aiming to take advantage of its benefits. As technologies like high-throughput screening, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and assay miniaturization continue to evolve, there is a growing need for solutions that are precise, scalable, and easy to use to maximize their potential. Compact devices like the I.DOT from DISPENDIX bring advanced benchtop liquid handling automation to labs of all sizes, enabling researchers to boost reproducibility, reduce waste, and accelerate discovery without overhauling existing lab setups or straining limited resources. This article focuses on how benchtop liquid handling automation drives greater precision, efficiency, and accessibility in modern life science workflows.
Manual pipetting is prone to errors and can cause physical damage like repetitive strain injuries1,2. In contrast, automation offers speed and accuracy, significantly reducing the risks to both workflow reliability and operator safety3. Automated systems allow researchers to consistently perform precise dispensing tasks over extended periods. This safeguards the quality of individual workflows and ensures that these workflows can be reliably reproduced over time and across different laboratories.
Greater dispensing accuracy enhances the reliability of generated data, resulting in more consistent and reproducible outcomes. This is especially critical for workflows like NGS, where even small dispensing errors can cause contamination, waste valuable samples and reagents, and produce misleading or unusable results4. With automated dispensing, researchers can place more confidence in their findings and progress confidently with their research projects.
The I.DOT from DISPENDIX facilitates precision dispensing down to nanoliter volumes, meaning researchers can tackle ambitious projects while minimizing reagent usage (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. The I.DOT Liquid Handler achieves 0.1 nanoliter resolution while ensuring accurate dispensing of high-viscosity samples like 65% glycerol.
The opportunity for manual errors to creep into workflows grows exponentially as processes become more complex and stretch over longer periods. Modern workflows such as NGS and high-throughput screening are incredibly tedious to pipette manually and carry significant penalties for any mistakes5. Many types of errors can occur when researchers don’t leverage automated systems, including:
These errors are simple to make, especially in noisy and busy lab environments, but can have disastrous consequences for data interpretation and research integrity. The I.DOT from DISPENDIX uses non-contact dispensing to virtually eliminate the risk of cross-contamination. Furthermore, the device has built-in safeguards such as minimized dead volume to reduce reagent waste to improve resource efficiency.
Benchtop automation helps laboratories make better use of space, time, and resources. It enables experiments to be easily scaled to suit the needs of different research projects, whether that means scaling up to test more conditions at once or scaling down to reduce reagent volumes and minimize the use of consumables.
Modern devices like the I.DOT enable highly precise dispensing into a wide range of plate formats, from 96- to 1536-well plates. This allows teams to quickly scale up their workflows without compromising quality or needing to invest in multiple instruments. As a result, established experimental workflows can be run at higher throughput, and more complex protocols, such as high-throughput screening and advanced assay development, become feasible.
Advanced automated pipetting instruments are no longer limited to large institutions or labs with big budgets. Today, their benefits are accessible to labs of all sizes and means. Many high-throughput systems now feature compact designs, allowing them to integrate seamlessly into the existing infrastructure of small to medium-sized laboratories. This smaller footprint makes it easy to incorporate automation into current lab setups without major disruptions and simplifies workflow transfer between different devices.
The I.DOT is a relatively small device with an extensive range of capabilities, but crucially, this flexibility does not come at the expense of usability. On the contrary, the I.DOT features an intuitive and user-friendly interface, minimizing the need for training and ensuring that researchers can hit the ground running when incorporating the I.DOT into their workflows. This means postdocs and PhD students don’t need to spend hours training new lab members, freeing up their time to focus on their projects or writing tasks.
Figure 2. Advanced instruments like the I.DOT from DISPENDIX are as simple to use as a pipette—designed to make scientists' lives easier, not more complicated, thanks to their intuitive interface.
Automation is transforming research across the life sciences, benefiting everyone from large multinational companies to small academic labs3,6–8. Modern workflows are now accessible to virtually all labs, enabling researchers to improve data quality while reducing costs. Key advances include assay miniaturization, optimized NGS workflows for deeper genomic insights, and breakthroughs in synthetic biology8,9.
Accurate nanoliter-scale dispensing through devices like the I.DOT Liquid Handler enable this transformation. Now, even small labs can generate large amounts of high-quality data by leveraging benchtop automation.
Benchtop liquid handling automation transforms modern labs by improving reproducibility, reducing errors and waste, increasing throughput, boosting accessibility, and enabling cutting-edge workflows like NGS and synthetic biology. These powerful benefits are no longer limited to large-scale operations. Labs of all sizes can now streamline research with compact, user-friendly systems. It’s time to view automation not as a luxury but as an affordable necessity.
Download the I.DOT brochure to discover how benchtop automation can help transform your research!