Busting Myths in Compound Handling Practices for Assay Developers

Since the advent of modern-day screening collections in the early 2000s, various aspects of our knowledge of good handling practices have continued to evolve. Some early practices, however, continue to prevail due to the absence of defining data that would bust the myths of tradition. The lack of defining data leads to a gap between plate-based screeners, on the one hand, and compound sample handling groups, on the other, with the latter being the default party to blame when an assay goes awry.In this paper, we highlight recommended practices that ensure sample integrity and present myth busting data that can help determine the root cause of an assay gone bad. We show how a strong and collaborative relationship between screening and sample handling groups is the better state that leads to the accomplishment of the common goal of finding breakthrough medicines.

Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Human Motion: A Review on Mechanisms, Materials, and Challenges

The emergence of flexible wearable electronics as a new platform for accurate, unobtrusive, user-friendly, and longitudinal sensing has opened new horizons for personalized assistive tools for monitoring human locomotion and physiological signals. Herein, we survey recent advances in methodologies and materials involved in unobtrusively sensing a medium to large range of applied pressures and motions, such as those encountered in large-scale body and limb movements or posture detection. We discuss three commonly used methodologies in human gait studies: inertial, optical, and angular sensors. Next, we survey the various kinds of electromechanical devices (piezoresistive, piezoelectric, capacitive, triboelectric, and transistive) that are incorporated into these sensor systems; define the key metrics used to quantitate, compare, and optimize the efficiency of these technologies; and highlight state-of-the-art examples. In the end, we provide the readers with guidelines and perspectives to address the current challenges of the field.

Rapid Production and Recovery of Cell Spheroids by Automated Droplet Microfluidics

The future of the life sciences is linked to automation and microfluidics. As robots start working side by side with scientists, robotic automation of microfluidics in general, and droplet microfluidics in particular, will significantly extend and accelerate the life sciences. Here, we demonstrate the automation of droplet microfluidics using an inexpensive liquid-handling robot to produce human scaffold-free cell spheroids at high throughput. We use pipette actuation and interface the pipetting tip with a droplet-generating microfluidic device. In this device, we produce highly monodisperse droplets with a diameter coefficient of variation (CV) lower than 2%. By encapsulating cells in these droplets, we produce cell spheroids in droplets and recover them to standard labware containers at a throughput of 85,000 spheroids per microfluidic circuit per hour. The viability of the cells in spheroids remains high throughout the process and decreases by >10% (depending on the cell line used) after a 16 h incubation period in nanoliter droplets and automated recovery. Scaffold-free cell spheroids and 3D tissue constructs recapitulate many aspects of functional human tissue more accurately than 2D or single-cell cultures, but assembly methods for spheroids (e.g., hanging drop microplates) have limited throughput. The increased throughput and decreased cost of our method enable spheroid production at the scale needed for lead discovery drug screening, and approach the cost at which these microtissues could be used as building blocks for organ-scale regenerative medicine.

DIY Automated Feeding and Motion Recording System for the Analysis of Fish Behavior

Fish species such as medaka or zebrafish are widely used as animal models to study physiology, disease development, and treatment efficacy. They are also used to study the rapidly growing field of behavior research, such as social interactions, anxiety, and the influence of environmental factors. Here we describe an automated experimental setup allowing the recording of general locomotor activity in combination with a food-on-demand system. It can simply be built with some basic electronic knowledge. Our setup enables the recording of locomotor and feeding activity of several fish for long-term studies, excluding disturbing external influences. A description of the automated recording system is given, as well as examples of recordings to illustrate its applicability for the study of fish behavior. The construction manual and operation instructions can be downloaded for free.

Automated Analytical Measurement Processes Using a Dual-Arm Robotic System

The demand for automation in the analytical laboratory is high. In contrast to well-automated bioscreening and high-throughput and high-content screening processes, analytical measurement procedures are complex in their structure and changing frequently. Not only do robotic units have to perform transportation or specific single tasks, but also flexible robots are needed to cover several tasks, including transportation and direct sample manipulation. Due to their human-like structure, dual-arm robots are predestined for analytical measurement processes. A new study published in the journal Energies presents a novel integration of electronic piston pipettes into an automation system using a dual-arm robot to perform liquid handling tasks similar to human operators. In this commentary, the main findings are highlighted and discussed.

Achieving Reproducibility and Closed-Loop Automation in Biological Experimentation with an IoT-Enabled Lab of the Future

A robotic cloud laboratory driven by a state-of-the-art unified laboratory operating system integrates automated hardware, humans, and sensors. This lab of the future system enables researchers to transparently and collaboratively create, optimize, and organize biological experiments to achieve more reproducible results, perform around-the-clock experimentation, and more efficiently navigate the vast parameter space of biology.

Digital Assays Part I: Partitioning Statistics and Digital PCR

A digital assay is one in which the sample is partitioned into many small containers such that each partition contains a discrete number of biological entities (0, 1, 2, 3, …). A powerful technique in the biologist's toolkit, digital assays bring a new level of precision in quantifying nucleic acids, measuring proteins and their enzymatic activity, and probing single-cell genotypes and phenotypes. Part I of this review begins with the benefits and Poisson statistics of partitioning, including sources of error. The remainder focuses on digital PCR (dPCR) for quantification of nucleic acids. We discuss five commercial instruments that partition samples into physically isolated chambers (cdPCR) or droplet emulsions (ddPCR). We compare the strengths of dPCR (absolute quantitation, precision, and ability to detect rare or mutant targets) with those of its predecessor, quantitative real-time PCR (dynamic range, larger sample volumes, and throughput). Lastly, we describe several promising applications of dPCR, including copy number variation, quantitation of circulating tumor DNA and viral load, RNA/miRNA quantitation with reverse transcription dPCR, and library preparation for next-generation sequencing. This review is intended to give a broad perspective to scientists interested in adopting digital assays into their workflows. Part II focuses on digital protein and cell assays.

A Dynamic Survival Detection and Analysis System for Mosquito Larvae Viability in Drug Assays

Bioinformatics studies have emerged in the domain of larval behavior analysis in recent years. A dynamic survival detection and analysis system for automatically monitoring a large amount of mosquito larvae in bioassays with multiwell plates by acquiring and processing videos is proposed in this article. In our system, equipment is designed for acquiring the video of the mosquito larvae in several multiwell plates simultaneously by a camera, and a video analysis module is developed for detecting the survival states of larvae in each well in real time. Also, a novel model and a new image registration algorithm are proposed to accurately obtain the survival state by analyzing the larval motion activities and the weights of larvae in each well. In our experiments, several spinosad bioassays against 2-instar Aedes aegypti with 96-well plates are used to evaluate the proposed system, and the accuracy of the larval survival state in our system is more than 85%. Moreover, this investigation has indicated that the developed system not only can be used in the mosquito larval bioassays but also can be suitable to detect and analyze the behaviors of large amount of other larvae.

Microfluidic Tissue Mesodissection in Molecular Cancer Diagnostics

We present a mesodissection platform that retains the advantages of laser-based dissection instrumentation with the speed and ease of manual dissection. Tissue dissection in clinical laboratories is often performed by manually scraping a physician-selected region from standard glass slide mounts. In this manner, costs associated with dissection remain low, but spatial resolution is compromised. In contrast, laser microdissection methods maintain spatial resolution that matches the requirements for analysis of important tissue heterogeneity but remains costly and labor intensive. We demonstrate a microfluidic tool for rapid extraction of histological regions of interest from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue, which uses a simple and automated method that is compatible with most downstream enzymatic reactions, including protocols used for next-generation DNA sequencing.

Integrated Colony Imaging, Analysis, and Selection Device for Regenerative Medicine

Stem and progenitor cells derived from human tissues are being developed as cell sources for cell-based assays and therapies. However, tissue-derived stem and progenitor cells are heterogeneous. Differences in observed clones of stem cells likely reflect important aspects of the underlying state of the source cells, as well as future potency for cell therapies. This paper describes a colony analysis and picking device that provides quantitative analysis of heterogeneous cell populations and precise tools for cell picking for research or biomanufacturing applications. We describe an integrated robotic system that enables image acquisition and automated image analysis to be coupled with rapid automated selection of individual colonies in adherent cell cultures. Other automated systems have demonstrated feasibility with picking from semisolid media or off feeder layers. We demonstrate the capability to pick adherent bone-derived stem cells from tissue culture plastic. Cells are efficiently picked from a target site and transferred to a recipient well plate. Cells demonstrate viability and adherence and maintain biologic potential for surface markers CD73 and CD90 based on phase contrast and fluorescence imaging 6 days after transfer. Methods developed here can be applied to the study of other stem cell types and automated culture of cells.

Automated Gravimetric Calibration to Optimize the Accuracy and Precision of TECAN Freedom EVO Liquid Handler

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. The methodology to set up liquid class pipetting parameters for each solution was to split the process in three steps: (1) screening of predefined liquid class, including different pipetting parameters; (2) adjustment of accuracy parameters based on a calibration curve; and (3) confirmation of the adjustment. The run of appropriate pipetting scripts, data acquisition, and reports until the creation of a new liquid class in EVOware was fully automated. The calibration and confirmation of the robotic system was simple, efficient, and precise and could accelerate data acquisition for a wide range of biopharmaceutical applications.

Implementation of an Automated High-Throughput Plasmid DNA Production Pipeline

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). Here we describe the implementation of these systems with a focus on high-throughput plasmid DNA production management.

A Liquid-Handling Robot for Automated Attachment of Biomolecules to Microbeads

Diagnostics, drug delivery, and other biomedical industries rely on cross-linking ligands to microbead surfaces. Microbead functionalization requires multiple steps of liquid exchange, incubation, and mixing, which are laborious and time intensive. Although automated systems exist, they are expensive and cumbersome, limiting their routine use in biomedical laboratories. We present a small, bench-top robotic system that automates microparticle functionalization and streamlines sample preparation. The robot uses a programmable microcontroller to regulate liquid exchange, incubation, and mixing functions. Filters with a pore diameter smaller than the minimum bead diameter are used to prevent bead loss during liquid exchange. The robot uses three liquid reagents and processes up to 10(7) microbeads per batch. The effectiveness of microbead functionalization was compared with a manual covalent coupling process and evaluated via flow cytometry and fluorescent imaging. The mean percentages of successfully functionalized beads were 91% and 92% for the robot and manual methods, respectively, with less than 5% bead loss. Although the two methods share similar qualities, the automated approach required approximately 10 min of active labor, compared with 3 h for the manual approach. These results suggest that a low-cost, automated microbead functionalization system can streamline sample preparation with minimal operator intervention.

Laboratory automation in a functional programming language

After some years of use in academic and research settings, functional languages are starting to enter the mainstream as an alternative to more conventional programming languages. This article explores one way to use Haskell, a functional programming language, in the development of control programs for laboratory automation systems. We give code for an example system, discuss some programming concepts that we need for this example, and demonstrate how the use of functional programming allows us to express and verify properties of the resulting code.

A Combined Fabrication and Instrumentation Platform for Sample Preparation

While potentially powerful, access to molecular diagnostics is substantially limited in the developing world. Here we present an approach to reduced cost molecular diagnostic instrumentation that has the potential to empower developing world communities by reducing costs through streamlining the sample preparation process. In addition, this instrument is capable of producing its own consumable devices on demand, reducing reliance on assay suppliers. Furthermore, this instrument is designed with an "open" architecture, allowing users to visually observe the assay process and make modifications as necessary (as opposed to traditional "black box" systems). This open environment enables integration of microfluidic fabrication and viral RNA purification onto an easy-to-use modular system via the use of interchangeable trays. Here we employ this system to develop a protocol to fabricate microfluidic devices and then use these devices to isolate viral RNA from serum for the measurement of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) viral load. Results obtained from this method show significantly reduced error compared with similar nonautomated sample preparation processes.

Automated reagent-dispensing system for microfluidic cell biology assays

Microscale systems that enable measurements of oncological phenomena at the single-cell level have a great capacity to improve therapeutic strategies and diagnostics. Such measurements can reveal unprecedented insights into cellular heterogeneity and its implications into the progression and treatment of complicated cellular disease processes such as those found in cancer. We describe a novel fluid-delivery platform to interface with low-cost microfluidic chips containing arrays of microchambers. Using multiple pairs of needles to aspirate and dispense reagents, the platform enables automated coating of chambers, loading of cells, and treatment with growth media or other agents (e.g., drugs, fixatives, membrane permeabilizers, washes, stains, etc.). The chips can be quantitatively assayed using standard fluorescence-based immunocytochemistry, microscopy, and image analysis tools, to determine, for example, drug response based on differences in protein expression and/or activation of cellular targets on an individual-cell level. In general, automation of fluid and cell handling increases repeatability, eliminates human error, and enables increased throughput, especially for sophisticated, multistep assays such as multiparameter quantitative immunocytochemistry. We report the design of the automated platform and compare several aspects of its performance to manually-loaded microfluidic chips.