Every day more and more industries are turning to automated robotic systems to handle difficult and dangerous tasks in a more efficient, safer manner than a human being can manage.
The production line that once featured harried human workers rushing to assemble their portion of a product as it slid inexorably past them on a conveyor belt has been replaced by fast, efficient robots that never tire and never miss a beat.
This turn to automation has provided a major boon to medical and scientific research and the production of medicines where everything depends on there being a zero chance of error.
One of the most exciting new advances is in the form of the automated liquid handling system that allows often volatile or hazardous liquids like chemicals and biologicals to be handled with security, swiftness, efficiency, and accuracy.
The automation of this complicated process allows precision dispensing, mixing, and transfer of liquids with no chance of human error.
These amazing pipetting robots have greatly increased productivity by allowing the work to be completed at a much higher rate than was formerly humanly possible. The technology has been a huge benefit to research laboratories around the world.
There are a wide variety of automated liquid handling systems built specifically for their use, with different sizes and shapes designed to be applied to the field they are meant to serve, be it scientific and medicinal research, or even wine-making, there is a model to handle whatever liquid you are working with.
The system utilizes a motorized syringe or pipette affixed to a robotic arm mechanism to deliver a specific volume of liquid to a waiting container. Some advanced models sport an integrated camera eye that allows even more autonomy from human controllers, they can see what they are doing with pinpoint accuracy!
The following are just some of the important processes that can currently be automated:
- Next Generation Sequencing
- NGS Library Sample Preparation
- Nucleic Acid Preparation
- PCR Setup
- Liquid-Liquid Extraction
- Solid Phase Extraction
- Bio Array and Spot Printing Workstation
- Liquid Biopsy
If you are working in any of these fields you have probably already partnered with one of these incredibly useful systems and understand the benefits, which are as follows:
- Contamination Reduction
- Human Error Reduction
- Human labour Reduction
- 24/7 Constant Results
The ability to use this technology to replace laboratory technicians in the performance of the mundane and repetitive tasks of manual liquid handling allows them to spend their time pursuing other tasks that do need the human touch, like analyzing data acquired from samples and planning future experimentation.
Automation is also highly cost-effective as the machine can perform tasks at speeds that would be impossible for even the most adept human technician and is capable of a much higher level of accuracy, thus avoiding costly mistakes.
The United States Government’s National Library of Medicine has published a review of liquid handling procedures that you might find interesting. We hope that we have successfully extolled the benefits of automated liquid handling systems and that you will consider utilizing them in your research and development projects.