For months in 2020, news reports featured people waiting in long lines for hours to get tested for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Millions of people want to know if they have the virus, but test results are hard to come by, leaving many people without options. And those who can get tested often have to wait days or weeks for results, making the entire process virtually useless in efforts to stop the spread of the disease. The reasons for the testing snafu are complex — high demand, scarce supply, staffing issues — but one major bottleneck is clear: The laboratories processing clinical tests simply cannot keep up with demand. Most laboratories simply do not have the capacity to handle the large number of test samples.
In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a major flaw in traditional laboratories: Most were unable to pivot quickly from routine operations to meet the demands of a rapidly escalating global health crisis. Their designs and procedures (equipment, supply chains, workflows, etc.) cannot scale to meet the urgent need for diagnostic testing. But some innovation labs are able to ramp up quickly to meet demand. By mid-year, outbreak response laboratories in Manhattan, many hospital clinics in Europe, and many other labs around the world had overhauled the way they operated, processing thousands of test samples every day, some even starting from scratch. How did they do it? They employ the latest generation of laboratory automation technology, the cornerstone of which are Opentrons' liquid handling robots that are easy to use, open source and, perhaps most importantly, affordable.
Robots for the rest of us Robots have been used to automate life science laboratory processes for decades. But they are often not easy to use. Most are complex machines using proprietary software. They require a steep learning curve and lock users into one vendor. They offer no options for scientific collaboration, so protocols and results are rarely shared, delaying scientific progress. And they are expensive. On the contrary, Opentrons' pipetting robots are a real revolution in the life sciences. Accessible by small clinics and research projects, biotech startups, DIY researchers and many others, they are helping scientists around the world quickly solve major problems like coronavirus testing bottlenecks and collaborate to explore climate change and global food shortages, among others Other important issues.
“Life sciences will be the most important technology of the 21st century,” said Will Canine, co-founder and chief product officer of Opentrons. “We are building a company that makes life science tools more accessible to everyone. Imagine what your lab can do with robots?
User-Centered Design: Tools for Scientists
Isn't it time for you to use tools that are built for you, not your vendor's technicians?
Most laboratory scientists have experienced the tedium of manually pipetting hundreds or thousands of liquid samples. This work can take hours or even days. One mistake, one miscalculation, could mean the entire experiment is affected. Repetitive stress injuries are common.
Standard laboratory automation systems promise to alleviate this pain. But they come at a high price, both in time and money. Most of these systems are complex and difficult to operate. Simply ordering a system means a months-long specification and custom build process. Then, once delivered and installed, they often require weeks of user training. It can take months for a staff member to learn how to use it - and they're the only ones who can operate it. If a problem occurs, it usually means shutting down the machine until the supplier can send programming experts to the site to troubleshoot.
Furthermore, standard robots are typically closed systems programmed by the vendor to perform a specific task using only the vendor's reagents. They have struggled to adapt to other tasks — such as processing tens of thousands of coronavirus test samples.
Exceptionally simple robotOpentrons’ laboratory robot is like no other. They are extremely simple open source plug-and-play systems that require no coding knowledge to get started. Similar to purchasing a personal computer, these robots are ready to go once unboxed and placed on a lab bench. With Opentrons robots, designing and running experiments is easy. Protocols can be developed using code-free drag-and-drop modules or downloaded from free protocol libraries that include protocols developed by Opentrons and shared by scientists around the world. Those who want to get creative can adapt existing programs or write their own using the open source Python API. Opentrons technical staff are also available online to help develop workflows. Once you upload the protocol to the Opentrons application, the machine does the rest. Laboratory tasks that previously took hours to do manually (pipetting, serial dilutions, NGS library preparation, PCR sample preparation, qPCR preparation, etc.) are now fully automated, allowing you and your colleagues to focus on research, not pipetting. liquid.
“COVID-19 is a challenge Opentrons is responding to.” — Will Canine, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Opentrons
Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis As labs around the world discovered in 2020, the user-friendly capabilities of Opentrons robots also enabled many labs to quickly pivot to respond to the global public health crisis. In early 2020, Opentrons published a blog post explaining how a fleet of eight Opentrons robots could be quickly deployed to automate several steps of coronavirus testing—sample inoculation, RNA extraction, and qPCR setup—and run 2,400 tests per day . Within weeks, the newly developed Opentrons COVID-19 testing system, including hardware and open source protocols, has been ordered and deployed by dozens of clinical sites around the world.
Application Notes · 2024Year35Moon29Day
