Opentrons' COVID-19 testing system can help laboratories running public health surveillance programs immediately scale up to screen 2,400 tests per day. Opentrons' mission is to accelerate progress in the life sciences through broader use of laboratory robotics. The world needs this capability now more than ever. Large-scale COVID-19 testing is one of the best ways to limit mortality. Mass testing can quickly detect and isolate infections, limit the spread of the virus and protect vulnerable people. To properly survey a population, millions of COVID-19 test kits need to be processed. Organizations around the world are working to improve their capabilities as quickly as possible.
This is what Opentrons was built to address this challenge.
Opentrons' COVID-19 testing systems are the best solution for laboratories running COVID-19 public health surveillance programs that need to immediately scale up to automated operations. Opentrons can install systems that automate up to 2,400 tests per day within days of placing an order. We are currently deploying this surveillance capability at the Open Medicine Institute in Palo Alto, California, with additional surveillance projects coming soon.
We can work with any reagent supplier and even advise on the best and most affordable options. If your laboratory needs to expand COVID-19 monitoring operations, please contact us at [email protected].
Opentrons and the Open Medicine Institute are eager to work with local and federal agencies to determine whether the system can be used for clinical diagnostics under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and to provide testing bandwidth to meet the extremely high and growing demand.
Below are details about the system we developed and how it was deployed for large-scale COVID-19 testing.
Testing Process Like many infectious disease tests, the test to detect the COVID-19 virus uses quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) technology. For coronaviruses like COVID-19, the test is actually a reverse transcriptase qPCR (RT-qPCR) because it measures RNA rather than DNA. RT-qPCR is able to detect the presence and levels of target COVID-19 sequences in RNA purified from patient samples, telling you whether someone is infected and, if so, approximately how long.
The first step is to collect samples. Collection occurs after a doctor orders the test. Hospitals, laboratories and public health facilities swab the patient's nose or mouth and immediately place the test swab into a test tube. These patient samples are then safely taken to a testing laboratory.
Once the collection tubes arrive at the laboratory, there are three automated steps:
Each step has a designated OT-2 workstation (except for detection, which is performed on a laboratory-provided qPCR instrument). Here's how to automate processes on Opentrons:
Station A – Sample Plating: 96 collection tubes containing patient samples suspended in inactivating buffer are placed on the first Opentrons robot and reformatted for RNA extraction. Robots pipette samples and positive controls from tubes into deep-well plates.
Site A configuration: $9,050
p20 + p300 single channel pipette temperature module (active cooling control RNA) 4x tube rack 96 deep well extraction plate 1x 20ul rack + 1x 200ul filter tip rack OT-2 deck layout for site A OT-2 deck layout for site A Station A should be located in some sort of "injection" room. The main bottleneck at this site is usually not the actual reformatting, but rather labeling, recording, decapping and loading collection tubes into racks for the robot. It is best to separate the sample injection chamber from any space where sample processing takes place to prevent contamination. Once the sample and positive control RNA are in the deep well plate, they can be moved to station B.
Station B – RNA extraction: 96 deep-well plates (containing samples) are moved to a second robot for RNA extraction using magnetic beads. This is a major part of the automated process, as multiple wash steps are required to fully purify the RNA.
Site B configuration: $7,750
p300 8-channel pipette magnetic module 96 deep well extraction plate 96-well elution plate 5 200ul filter holders 2 12-channel reagent containers 2 1-channel liquid waste container
There should also be a dedicated extraction room to house all Site B extraction robots. If throughput requires, this room can also accommodate a reagent filling station to prepare magnetic beads and buffers for station B robots for RNA extraction. As you can see in the deck diagram above, this process requires a lot of reagents and tips.
Station C - Assay setup: The RNA isolated from the sample (eluted) is then moved to a third room, which houses the qPCR instrument and is designed to be as "clean" as possible to minimize contamination. Plates containing pure sample RNA were placed on the Opentrons robot in preparation for RT-qPCR assays.
Station C OT-2 configuration: $7,500
p20 single channel Opentrons temperature module 96 well elution plate 96 well PCR plate 3x rack 20ul filter tips
Reagents required for RT-qPCR are placed individually on temperature modules for active cooling. These reagents are combined into a master mix, which is then dispensed into plates and combined with purified RNA. After this process, the plates can be put into a qPCR machine and analyzed for the presence of COVID-19.
Throughput We developed a system of 8 robots (2 Stations A, 4 Stations B, 2 Stations C) that can automatically prepare 12 96-well plates every 12 hours, or approximately 2,400 tests per day.
The process timing for the 8 robot systems is as follows:
The system, which costs $100,000 plus spare parts and laboratory installation, can be used for monitoring projects. We could do 1 installation per week in March and then 4 installations per week in April. If we achieve this goal, we are on track to automate 1 million tests on the Opentrons system by the end of June.
We are currently working on installing the first high-throughput system at the Open Medicine Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, and are eager to use our robots to help the lab with this critical project.
If you are interested in partnering with Opentrons to expand your lab’s ability to run COVID-19 tests, please contact [email protected].
Application Notes · 2024Year35Moon29Day
