ISO approval for this method is good news for drug researchers, who have long used the gravimetric technique, utilises light absorption to verify volume accuracy, and is readily implemented for low volume measurement and high throughput screening applications.
It uses a balance to measure liquid volume and is difficult to implement at the low volumes typical of drug discovery applications, and is impossible to implement for high throughput liquid handlers.
Because the photometric method can be adopted into laboratory practices easily and cost-effectively, its use can improve quality assurance procedures and speed drug development.
"Regularly ensuring the performance of liquid handling instrumentation, whether manual or automated, is critical in life science laboratories. Even slight volumetric discrepancies can compromise results, leading to higher costs associated with remedial actions and useless data," commented George Rodrigues, senior scientific manager at Artel.
"As calibration technology advances, so too must regulatory standards. ISO recognises the importance of photometry for drug discovery applications, in which liquid delivery performance must be verified at extremely low volumes," he added.
Artel's products use a dual-dye approach to photometry, employing two proprietary solutions to combat accuracy problems typically associated with low-volume measurement verification.
This ultra-sensitive Artel technology provides unequalled accuracy and precision at low volumes, yielding results traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with an uncertainty of less than 1 per cent for volumes as low as 0.1µL.
Photometry is particularly well suited for small volumes, a quality that reflects both the advancing science of calibration methodology and life science industry trends.
With increasing reagent costs and a growing focus on the quality and content of high throughput screening results, pharmaceutical and clinical laboratories are handling smaller volumes of high value liquids, with an ever-increasing need to ensure accuracy and precision.
"Laboratories can reduce risk by implementing a proven and internationally accepted quality assurance technology that is applicable across the globe," said Richard Curtis, Chairman and Technical Director at Artel.
"This facilitates method transfer across departments and laboratories," he added.
Integrating an accepted calibration method is also important for laboratories striving to conform to cGMP/cGLP criteria and to ISO 17025, the international laboratory quality standard.