Set up and assign the preparation schemes

Preparation schemes correspond to industry-standard practices of dose preparation protocols. They let you efficiently assign dilution sequences and replicate settings to assay elements, ensuring consistency and reducing redundant input during setup.

When setting up biological assays, consistent and accurate sample preparation is essential. To support you during this process, PLA 3.0 provides preparation schemes, centralized configurations that let you assign dilution sequences and replicate settings to assay elements, streamlining the setup process and ensuring reproducibility.

Before you begin

You have set up the assay elements.

About this task

The assay in this use case has one standard and one reference sample. The standard and test sample have one replicate each. All samples are diluted 12 times.

Note: The setup is kept simple and designed to introduce core concepts. It is not intended as a recommendation for practical use.
Created from scratch, Quantitative response assay have one preparation scheme, assigned to all assay elements. In this use case, the absolute potency of the standard and the test sample differ. You therefore add a second preparation scheme for the test sample and adjust the default preparation scheme setup as follows:
Setting Default Use case

Absolute potency

Not defined

Defined by stock solution

Dilution sequence

Geometric sequence

User-defined sequence

Procedure

To add a second preparation scheme:
  1. In the Content editor, go to Setup > Preparation schemes.
  2. In the Creatable elements pane, double-click Preparation scheme.
    Result: Your assay now has two preparation schemes.
To set up the first preparation scheme:
  1. Expand the first Preparation scheme element.
  2. Define the absolute potency:
    1. Switch from Absolute potency: Not defined to Absolute potency: Defined by stock solution.
    2. As the Assigned/assumed potency, enter 100.
    3. As the Assigned/assumed units, enter IU/ml.
  3. Set up the dilution sequence.
    1. Switch from Geometric sequence to Defined sequence.
    2. By default, defined sequences have one dilution step. This use case uses 12 steps. You therefore have to add 11 extra steps.
      1. In the Creatable elements pane, right-click Dose value, and then select Create multiple elements from the context menu.
      2. In the Create multiple elements dialog, change the value of Number of elements to create to 11.
      3. To add the elements, select OK.
      Result: Your sequence now has now 12 dilution steps.
    3. Starting at the first Dose value element, enter the following values: 5, 3.33, 2.22, 1.48, 0.99, 0.66, 0.44, 0.29, 0.2, 0.13, 0.09, and 0.06.
      Tip: Press Enter to confirm a value and jump to the next element.
To set up the second preparation scheme:
  1. Expand the second Preparation scheme element.
  2. Define the absolute potency:
    1. In the drop-down list, switch from Absolute potency: Not defined to Absolute potency: Defined by stock solution.
    2. As the Assigned/assumed potency, enter 200.
    3. As the Assigned/assumed units, enter IU/ml.
  3. To set up the dilution sequence, repeat step 5 for the second scheme.
To assign the second preparation schemes to the test element:
  1. Expand Setup > Assay elements > Test sample.
  2. From the Preparation scheme drop-down list, select the second preparation scheme.
  3. Save the template.

What to do next

Define the plate size.