ANALYTICAL & LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
Automation solutions are a prime focus for
medical testing labs, where anything that can speed up results is crucial to ongoing success
Carola Schmidt examines whether automation is now standard within the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries
THE NEW NORMAL?
L
aboratory automation began in the 1950s and the fi rst automated instrument, the Autoanalyzer I, used continuous fl ow analysis (CFA)
to considerably increase the instrument throughput, exceeding the manual processes of the time. With time, these innovations have drastically increased, and each new generation of instruments elevates the volume of work and menu of assays, while continuously maintaining
accuracy – an aspect that became critical during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lab automation during the pandemic
defi ned a ‘new normal’ for scientists and lab technicians who had to rely on automated data management systems for accurate reporting and traceability of the samples. A 2021 study entitled High-speed large-scale automated isolation of SARS-CoV-2 from clinical samples using miniaturised co-culture coupled to high-
content screening showed that automation enabled rapid and accurate testing with minimal human contact, thereby reducing the risk of contamination and spread of the infection among lab personnel.
WIDE-REACHING BENEFITS However, the benefi ts of automation extend beyond diagnostics, and in recent years, automation is being implemented in manufacturing cell and gene therapies and developing both small and large- molecule products. Advancements in automated fl uid handling systems have proven to increase effi ciency and foster greater speeds and reproducibility in the development of drug candidates and chemical probes for biological systems. T ey also enable a streamlined
screening procedure, substantially increasing throughput and providing consistency and dependability. Additionally, innovations such as
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