Plate types

Every plate in IceBear needs to have a plate type. The plate type describes the plate layout - rows, columns, and subpositions.

Listing plate types

To see a list of all plate types in IceBear, click "Find plate types" from the main menu.

Viewing and editing a plate type

The plate type page looks like this:

Most people don't have permission to edit plate types. Only people in the Administrators and Technicians usergroups can do this, unless an administrator has changed the permissions.

Details

The Details box shows basic information about the plate type:

• Name - The name of the plate type. Note that this must match the name of the plate type in your imaging system!
• Number of rows - How many rows are in plates of this type. For a typical 96-well plate, this is 8.
• Number of columns - How many columns are in plates of this type. For a typical 96-well plate, this is 12.
• Drops per well - How many drops are in each well of the plate.
• Drop mapping - How the drops are numbered within the well. This field is explained further below.

If you do have permission to edit plate types, beware: If the plate type was imported from your imaging system, you should not change anything except the drop mapping.

The Drop Mapping field

Different sites, and even different instruments within the same lab, can have different understandings of the well layout. When transferring plates, it becomes important to describe one side's understanding to the other. "Their drop 3 is our drop 1." The Drop Mapping field attempts to describe the local understanding, at least as far as the imaging system is concerned.

The Drop Mapping field makes no attempt to describe well or subposition dimensions, only which drop has which number.

Plates tab

Here you can see a list of the plates that have this plate type.

Files tab

Here you can see attached files, and attach new files if you have permission.

Viewing files

Any attached files are listed along with a description and the file size. Click the filename to open the file in a new tab.

Attaching files

If you have permission to add files, simply select the file, give a short description, and click the Add file button.

Notes tab

Here you can read any notes that have been made, and make new ones if you have permission.

All notes are labelled with the date and time when they were added, as well as with the name of the author. You don't need to write these into your note.

Creating a new plate type

You can only create new plate types if you are in the Administrators or Technicians usergroup.

IceBear will import plate types from your imaging system. It is recommended that you don't create plate types yourself; instead, create it in your imager software and let IceBear import it with the first plate of that type.

If you want to do it anyway, or if you don't have an imager, click "Create new..." in the header of the plate type list page, or click "Add a plate type" from the main menu.