Screening


Figure 10: Cost of 24h lost HTS system operation or unscheduled downtime


10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%


0% 5%


<$0.5K © HTStec 2010 Mean Cost Of 24h Lost Operation = $5,800 44%


system integrators what they thought contributed to poor reliability and to tell us specifically what they are doing or have done to improve the relia- bility of their systems.


19% 15% 10% 6% 2% $0.5K-$1K $1K-$2.5K $2.5K-$5K $5K-$10K 0% $10K-$25K 0% $25K-$50K 4% >$50K N/A - don’t know Figure 11


Agilent BioCel platform set-up for high throughput cell assays


66


Agilent Automation Solutions (www.agilent.com/ chem/automation) has a reputation for delivering and supporting integrated systems with long walk- away times and the highest possible throughput. Several factors affect system reliability, but in the end there are three key factors to achieve the desired 24/365 availability: design for automation; test the system as close as possible to its final con- figuration and environment; and ensuring that change control is established by the end user. Although these may appear obvious, reliability is often lost on the detail and a careful impact analy- sis and log control are often the best methods to maintain and troubleshoot reliability. Before one can maintain reliability on-site, the integrator needs to achieve this in the built system. We can look at four aspects that are essential for this task. Firstly, it is important that the devices, its software and used labware are made for automation; most importantly the regular tuning and service that are acceptable for manually-used devices might not be compatible with fully integrated operation. Agilent rigorously pre-evaluate any new device and test it once integrated, with any required modifications or additional handling software. Occasionally, the use of devices with a poor track record cannot be avoided and it is then that the user has to consider a system that can handle true device pooling, that on device failure is able to automatically remove it from the pool and continue the protocol. Secondly, the use of very low maintenance, scientist-friendly robots are essential. This has driven us to build dedicated robots, hubs, translators and conveyors for the BioCel platform as well as a large number of the automation building blocks like plate seal- ers, centrifuge and others. Thirdly, the software environment is often an overlooked factor with a huge influence on overall reliability. Most systems depend on software for error handling and recov- ery and a properly tuned and backed up system is essential. Finally, there is the human factor; a missing tube, a plate off the stage by 2mm can all turn down a system. The Agilent VWorks soft- ware uses a patented error library that besides allowing for automatic plate rotation, pick and place re-try, and other pre-defined actions, can also choose to quarantine suspected plates or log- ically induce a controlled protocol early end to protect samples and avoid wasted reagents (Figure 11).


Drug Discovery World Winter 2010/11


% Responding


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