Automation in Synthetic Biology Flashcards
Synthetic Biology applications and challenges
Many Applications
* Produce Chemical
* Therapeutics/Diagnostics
* Fabricate materials
* Produce Energy
* Environment remediation
Challenges
* Lack predictable and efficient engineering of novel biological
systems.
* Complexity of biological systems
* Handling thousands of samples manually become too tedious and
error prone
Biofoundries aim
Biofoundries aim to accelerate and enhance research in engineering/synthetic biology by promoting and enabling the beneficial use of automation and high-throughput equipment including process scale-up, computer-aided design software, and other new workflows and tools.
Biofoundries DBTL
Integrated infrastructure for DBTL
- Liquid handling robots
- Automation of molecular biology protocols
- HTP assembly of DNA
- HTP testing of designs in cells
- Integrated analytics and omics measurement
- Software tools e.g. LIMS and BioCAD
- Application of data driven learning algorithms AI/ML
- Access via the cloud
Automation Pipeline
DB
- acounstic liquid handling system
- automated colony picker
- liquid handling with PCR and DNA extraction capability
- automated capilliary gel electrophoresis
TL
-liquid handling with plate reader and flow cytometer
- HT-FACS sorter(Fluorescence-activated cell sorting)
- Q-ToD LCMS(Quadrupole time-of-flight liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry )
- GCMS(gas chromatography-mass spectrometry)
- Bioreactor
Opentron automated protocols
Benefits of Automation
- Involves tedious and
repetitive liquid handling - 96 well plates
VS
- Minimal human intervention
- Reduced human error
- 384 well plates
High Throughput
Higher Repeatability
Improved Reproducibility
Automation Software
- gene circuit design(parts repository)
- modelling(parts characterisation)
- experiment design(biomodel selection)
Lab Information Management System (LIMS) :
To improve efficiency in lab operations by cutting down on manual tasks.
e.g., Documentation, Sample tracking, Workflow management, etc
