When the Rwandan government needed ten Maxprep Liquid Handlers, Promega teams came together to make it happen on a tight deadline.
In April 2022, the Rwandan government requested to purchase ten Maxprep Liquid Handlers, each paired with a Maxwell RSC 48, plus 2,500 Maxwell purification kits. The instruments were needed for viral RNA extraction to support COVID-19 testing during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. This international gathering created a deadline of six weeks for installation and end-user training – less than half the time typically estimated for a single instrument.
The success of the order was made possible by long-term planning decisions made early in the pandemic. In the past, the Maxprep Liquid Handler was manufactured to order. However, as SARS-COV-2 emerged, Promega recognized explosive demand for sample preparation solutions, including automation. To ensure the company could meet urgent customer needs, Promega began maintaining a steady inventory of instruments based on sales projections. When an order came in, installation could happen as soon as the instrument and its accessories were shipped from the Madison warehouse to the customer site. This dramatically cut lead times for Maxprep instruments, so when the order came in from Rwanda, ten instruments were ready to go.
In June 2022, a multinational group of Promega scientists and engineers convened in Kigali, Rwanda. The team represented Promega offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. Between Saturday morning and Friday afternoon, they installed all ten Maxprep Instruments and their accompanying Maxwell RSC 48 Instruments and trained twenty people to use them.
Looking ahead, the Maxprep instruments will be used to support many more activities beyond the pandemic. The instruments were distributed to ten genetic research centers located throughout Rwanda. This is part of a decade-long dream to develop the biotechnological infrastructure to empower Rwandan scientists to address other major issues the country faces. These challenges include cancer, malaria, and agricultural diseases.
“For me, I can only call this work complete when all the genetic centers are up and running,” says Henk Honing, Product Specialist at Promega Benelux. “I have been working with the teams over the past year to make that happen, and we will continue to focus on that goal.”
Read more of the story at https://www.promegaconnections.com/maxprep-liquid-handler-rwanda/