Using an incubator or incubator room with the Reshape Imaging System is highly recommended. Not only does it allow you to control the temperature precisely for repeatable growth and behavior, but the stable temperature also helps a lot in process control and reducing the risk of condensation on the lids of plates.

Incubator rooms are the perfect environment, as they are very easy to install equipment in and makes it easy to up- or downscale the number of robots installed at any one time. They can either be stacked on shelves in the room, or for a low-footprint solution, the Reshape Imaging System Rack can be used, which can hold up to 6 imaging robots in a tightly packed space, and allows easy hot-swapping in case of malfunctions.

Stand-alone incubators are also often used. The temperature stability and rise time is not affected in the incubators we’ve tested (see application data in Appendix-A-RIS-Datasheet). These can allow more fine control if different temperatures are required in different machines. They are also available in different sizes, and are a lot easier to fit in existing laboratory facilities.

Our primary recommendations are for BINDER incubators. They are affordable and are available in a variety of different sizes. Particularly, the KB720 system is great for setting up screening platforms using the Reshape Imaging System – each incubator can fit 4 imaging systems comfortably. It will allow fine temperature control from 4-60 degrees celsius, and can be bought with pass-throughs for power and ethernet cables.