Luca Valeggia, Senior Vice President, Laboratory Automation, Tecan
Automation is a vital component to fuel the labs of tomorrow, and to ensure that drug development continues at the rapid pace seen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
B
y no means is automation a novel
concept for most research labs, but its swift advancement and expansion into new fields — such as synthetic biology — have shown us that we are only witnessing the start of what is possible. Together with open access data, which allows scientists around the globe to benefit from each other’s findings, it paints a bright picture of a future that is full of exciting new possibilities.
Automation
Laboratories all over the world have been shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic. This global event forced them to step up to the challenge, finding ways to handle unprecedented sample
and shared knowledge pave the way for the future
volumes quickly and efficiently for both research and diagnostics. This put automation in the spotlight, not only as a convenient tool, but a necessity, as obtaining accurate results with such speed would not have been possible if every sample was handled manually. Alongside the need for rapid diagnostic testing, it was crucial to develop a vaccine as fast as possible, to curb rampaging infection rates and help the world recover both medically and economically. Laboratories came together, sharing their discoveries through open access (OA) data portals to ensure that breakthroughs would not only benefit one organisation or country, but the entire world. This shines light on another important point — how much more we can accomplish by Synthetic biology has also played a major role in winning ground against the pandemic, allowing the creation of a candidate vaccine a mere 66 days after the viral genome was released.1 This vaccine was created using synthetic genes — an approach
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sharing our knowledge, instead of guarding it.
that is not only useful for developing vaccines, but
6 | LAB+LIFE SCIENTIST - Jun/Jul 2022
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