Journal of Laboratory Automation

The identification of effective and long-lasting cancer therapies still remains elusive, partially due to patient and tumor heterogeneity, acquired drug resistance, and single-drug dose-limiting toxicities. The use of drug combinations may help to overcome some limitations of current cancer therapies by challenging the robustness and redundancy of biological processes. However, effective drug combination optimization requires the careful consideration of numerous parameters. The complexity of this optimization problem is clearly nontrivial and likely requires the assistance of advanced heuristic optimization techniques...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Breast cancer is among the most common malignant tumors. It is the second leading cause of cancer mortality among women in the United States. Curcumin, an active derivative from turmeric, has been reported to have anticancer and chemoprevention effects on breast cancer. Curcumin exerts its anticancer effect through a complicated molecular signaling network, involving proliferation, estrogen receptor (ER), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) pathways. Experimental evidence has shown that curcumin also regulates apoptosis and cell phase-related genes and microRNA in breast cancer cells...

A wide linearity range analytical method for the determination of lenalidomide in patients with multiple myeloma for pharmacokinetic studies is required. Plasma samples were ultrasonicated for protein precipitation. A solid-phase extraction was performed. The eluted samples were evaporated to dryness under vacuum, and the solid obtained was diluted and injected into the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. Separation of lenalidomide was performed on an Xterra RP C18 (250 mm length × 4.6 mm i...

Flexible automation systems provide the needed adaptability to serve shorter-term projects and specialty applications in biochemical analysis. A low-cost selective compliant articulated robotic arm designed for liquid spillage avoidance is developed here. In the vertical-plane robotic arm movement test, the signals from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and accelerometer were able to sense collisions. In the horizontal movement test, however, only the signals from the IMU enabled collision to be detected. Using a calculation method developed, it was possible to chart the regions where the obstacle was likely to be located when a collision occurred...

Biologics sample management facilities are often responsible for a diversity of large-molecule reagent types, such as DNA, RNAi, and protein libraries. Historically, the management of large molecules was dispersed into multiple laboratories. As methodologies to support pathway discovery, antibody discovery, and protein production have become high throughput, the implementation of automation and centralized inventory management tools has become important. To this end, to improve sample tracking, throughput, and accuracy, we have implemented a module-based automation system integrated into inventory management software using multiple platforms (Hamilton, Hudson, Dynamic Devices, and Brooks)...

The pace and complexity of modern drug discovery places ever-increasing demands on scientists for data analysis and interpretation. Data flow programming and modern visualization tools address these demands directly. Three different requirements-one for allosteric modulator analysis, one for a specialized clotting analysis, and one for enzyme global progress curve analysis-are reviewed, and their execution in a combined data flow/visualization environment is outlined.

The aim of the present study was to determine the relation between the simultaneous fasting plasma glucose level and HbA1c in a large population of patients presenting to the hospital, based on various measurement methods available for HbA1c. HbA1c levels of 162,210 patients presenting to various hospitals and laboratories were measured based on seven different systems, and at the same time, eAG levels were calculated based on HbA1c levels. The correlation coefficients (r) between serum plasma glucose and HbA1c levels were found to be 0...

Compound management (CM) is a critical discipline enabling hit discovery through the production of assay-ready compound plates for screening. CM in pharma requires significant investments in manpower, capital equipment, repairs and maintenance, and information technology. These investments are at risk from external factors, for example, new technology rendering existing equipment obsolete and strategic site closures. At AstraZeneca, we faced the challenge of evaluating the number of CM sites required to support hit discovery in response to site closures and pressure on our operating budget...

We have developed an automated patch clamp module for high-throughput ion channel screening, recording from 384 cells simultaneously. The module is incorporated into a laboratory pipetting robot and uses a 384-channel pipettor head for application of cells and compounds. The module contains 384 amplifier channels for fully parallel recordings using a digital amplifier. Success rates for completed experiments (1- to 4-point concentration-response curves for cells satisfying defined quality control parameters) of greater than 85% have been routinely achieved with, for example, HEK, CHO, and RBL cell lines expressing hNaV1...

Plasma lipoproteins are the primary means of lipid transport among tissues. Defining alterations in lipid metabolism is critical to our understanding of disease processes. However, lipoprotein measurement is limited to specialized centers. Preparation for ultracentrifugation involves the formation of complex density gradients that is both laborious and subject to handling errors. We created a fully automated device capable of forming the required gradient. The design has been made freely available for download by the authors...

The AstraZeneca Compound Management group uses high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for structure elucidation and purity determination of the AstraZeneca compound collection. These activities are conducted in a high-throughput environment where the rate-limiting step is the review and interpretation of analytical results, which is time-consuming and experience dependent. Despite the development of a semiautomated review system, manual interpretation of results remains a bottleneck. Data-mining techniques were applied to archived data to further automate the review process...

Many biomarker-based diagnostic methods are inhibited by nontarget molecules in patient samples, necessitating biomarker extraction before detection. We have developed a simple device that purifies RNA, DNA, or protein biomarkers from complex biological samples without robotics or fluid pumping. The device design is based on functionalized magnetic beads, which capture biomarkers and remove background biomolecules by magnetically transferring the beads through processing solutions arrayed within small-diameter tubing...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Automation systems with applied robotics have already been established in industrial applications for many years. In the field of life sciences, a comparable high level of automation can be found in the areas of bioscreening and high-throughput screening. Strong deficits still exist in the development of flexible and universal fully automated systems in the field of analytical measurement. Reasons are the heterogeneous processes with complex structures, which include sample preparation and transport, analytical measurements using complex sensor systems, and suitable data analysis and evaluation...

Point-of-care (POC) microfluidic devices often lack the integration of common sample preparation steps, such as preconcentration, which can limit their utility in the field. In this technology brief, we describe a system that combines the necessary sample preparation methods to perform sample-to-result analysis of large-volume (20 mL) biopsy model samples with staining of captured cells. Our platform combines centrifugal-paper microfluidic filtration and an analysis system to process large, dilute biological samples...

High-throughput screening technologies are increasingly integrated into the formulation development process of biopharmaceuticals. The performance of liquid handling systems is dependent on the ability to deliver accurate and precise volumes of specific reagents to ensure process quality. We have developed an automated gravimetric calibration procedure to adjust the accuracy and evaluate the precision of the TECAN Freedom EVO liquid handling system. Volumes from 3 to 900 µL using calibrated syringes and fixed tips were evaluated with various solutions, including aluminum hydroxide and phosphate adjuvants, β-casein, sucrose, sodium chloride, and phosphate-buffered saline...

High-quality preclinical bioassay models are essential for drug research and development. We reviewed the emerging body-on-a-chip technology, which serves as a promising model to overcome the limitations of traditional bioassay models, and introduced existing models of body-on-a-chip, their constitutional details, application for drug testing, and individual features of these models. We put special emphasis on the latest trend in this field of incorporating barrier tissue into body-on-a-chip and discussed several remaining challenges of current body-on-a-chip...

Autoverification is a process of using computer-based rules to verify clinical laboratory test results without manual review. But to date, there are few published articles on the use of autoverification over the course of years in a clinical laboratory. In our study, we firstly described the development and implementation of autoverification rules for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) results of hepatitis B virus (HBV) serological markers in a clinical immunology laboratory. We designed the autoverification rules for HBV by using Boolean logic on five clinically used serological markers in accordance with the framework of AUTO-10A, issued by the American Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute in 2006...

Life science areas require specific sample pretreatment to increase the concentration of the analytes and/or to convert the analytes into an appropriate form for the detection and separation systems. Various workstations are commercially available, allowing for automated biological sample pretreatment. Nevertheless, due to the required temperature, pressure, and volume conditions in typical element and structure-specific measurements, automated platforms are not suitable for analytical processes. Thus, the purpose of the presented investigation was the design, realization, and evaluation of an automated system ensuring high-precision sample preparation for a variety of analytical measurements...