The Role of Lab Automation in COVID-19 Research
2020 was one of the most unprecedented years on record. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses and people worldwide were forced to rethink the way they operate. For many companies, this meant closing down, migrating workers to home offices, or introducing new systems into their operations. Throughout all of these changes, a spotlight was directed at laboratory automation and its role in COVID-19 research.
The growing need for flexible and robust solutions that will allow walk-away time and increased throughput for integrated laboratory automation became the main requirement for most research laboratories looking to limit the number of onsite workers in the lab space while continuing their research at a fast and effective way.
Over the past year, as the world grappled with the highly contagious COVID-19 virus, the need for a vaccine became one of the top priorities. With any extremely transmittable virus, there is a need to rush drug research efforts, which means processing many more samples and large-scale testing in a short amount of time.
Thus, this demand has highlighted the necessity and usefulness of automated laboratory systems so researchers can safely continue to run their tests and focus on data analysis.
The use of Laboratory automation systems allows for the completion of tedious tasks reducing the need of multiple workers in the lab. Thus, laboratory automation helps promote physical distancing in a lab setting without compromising but rather improving the operation’s efficiency.
Currently, the tests that detect the coronavirus are RT-PCR tests. These tests involve DNA sequencing, which is broken down into several time-consuming steps. Laboratory automation systems can now sequence vast amounts of DNA while also shedding light on how the virus evolves in a patient’s body.
Many of these integrated automation systems have been around for years. However, they are now being redesigned to handle coronavirus antibody testing using ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay).
The extreme scale of pandemic related laboratory-based research has shown the world how necessary laboratory automation is and how it can step up to the plate when humans are unable.
To learn more about automated solutions, contact Retisoft today. Our laboratory automation systems are built to tackle real-world problems now and for the future.
