OTTO: The Open-Source Automatic Liquid Handler 

For more information: www.OpenLiquidHandler.Com
Automatic liquid handlers are computer controlled machines that can precisely transport and combine liquids for various biological experiments. These machines not only free up a scientist’s time from performing tedious assays, but also produce more reliable and accurate data. However, for small labs commercial liquid handlers are too expensive to purchase and maintain. We, the Guelcher lab, present an open-source and affordable liquid handler designed specifically for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) sample preparation. qPCR is a routine technique used to identify changes in the expression of genes after perturbing a cell culture or animal model. qPCR is also used to identify the presence of viral genes in patients after an outbreak, like the recent COVID-19 pandemic.