Featured Article
Tuesday December 09, 2008
by Catherine Shaffer
Traditionally, biologists have had an uneasy relationship with their laboratory software. Scientists who are conversant with hardware and software have found themselves in great demand as informal tech support for the lab. As more and more laboratories become automated, however, users are asking more from their workstation automation software, and they have less time to spend on the learning curve.
There are hundreds of products on the market for workstation automation for just about any imaginable need. However, the market increasingly demands "plug and play" software that can be used with a wide variety of instruments and applications. As well, customers now want their interfaces to be intuitive and easy to use, much like their personal electronics. Scientists would rather spend their time doing science than attending a week-long software training course. To that end, many of the newest products on the market feature extensive interoperability, intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUI), minimal steps and screens to navigate, and protocols or modules that are already optimized for the desired application.
Intuitive
This smorgasbord of desired features can be a challenge to deliver in a single package. Of course, this hasn't discouraged software developers. Says Vincent Prezioso, PhD, Director of Marketing at Eppendorf, North America, "There's a fine line you have to walk. You can have an automated system that can do everything in the world. Then there's really simple dispensers that are easy to use, but they limit you. What we've created is an extremely flexible and versatile system that's also very easy to use...Anything you can do with a pipette, you can do with epMotion."
Eppendorf, already a dominant player in manual liquid handling, is moving aggressively into the area of workstation automation software with its new line. Dr. Prezioso describes Eppendorf's flagship software suite, epBlue, as a "game changer." Eppendorf has streamlined the usability of the software by combining many of the common steps of liquid transfers into handy macros.
Flexible
Reconfigurability is also a prime feature of Softlinx from Hudson Control Group. Hudson's main product is the plate crane, a robotic microplate handler. Softlinx coordinates the activities of the microplate moving instrument and enables the user to reconfigure their methods without the need for programming expertise. Uniquely, Softlinx also enables a user to run multiple methods simultaneously within the same work cell. Says Phil Farrelly, President of Hudson Control Group, "Softlinx allows users to step up to the equipment and initiate another automation session even while one is already running, and do it at any time...it allows users to get the most value out of their instruments, which are usually the most expensive components of these automated work cells."
In addition to the plate crane, Softlinx is compatible with roughly 200 third-party instruments such as plate readers, washers, and liquid handlers. Says Farrelly, "It's rare for us to come to a drug discovery or biotech laboratory and find any kind of standard instrument that we haven't already integrated into Softlinx." ELISA assays, protein expression, and colony picking are some examples of different assays run by customers using the software. In response to customer interest in a more streamlined GUI, Hudson Control will release a new version of Softlinx in January implementing a "tree view" screen in Windows® explorer that displays methods in flow-chart style. This is a feature that customers have in general responded to positively in workstation automation software.
A well-designed automation software package has virtually no limits on how it can be applied. It can run any instrument that is connected to a computer, which, nowadays, is nearly all of them. Says Wendy Lauber, Director of Product Management for the Biopharma Sector at Tecan, "You really can do just about anything you want. I've seen people pipetting zebrafish with them...the applications are as varied as the people that run them." She is describing the Freedom Evo, Tecan's liquid handling instrument. "With the modular, flexible, and scalable Freedom EVO robotic, you can grow as your needs change in the laboratory."
Any Way You Want
There are some problems with commercially available software. No matter how flexible or configurable the system, the multiplicity of applications means that at times there will be a disconnect between what the customer wants and what the software can do. As well, the majority of automation suites are written as companions for a particular instrument or system. There are no industry-wide standards for communication between devices, and in a sense, each vendor is reinventing the wheel. There is keen competition to set those standards, and become the Microsoft® of laboratory automation.
This is where tech-savvy scientists and bioinformaticians can make a significant contribution. Neil Benn, CEO of Ziath, Ltd, has launched an Real-time PCR
open source laboratory automation software project, called Open lab automation. Although the project is in the very earliest stages, and faces some significant challenges in creating drivers for hundreds of different devices, there are also some significant advantages. Chief among these would be the fact that the source code would be available for download and that users could modify the code to suit their needs and share these improvements with other users. It also gives "that computer guy" a better role in the laboratory than fiddling with a finicky proprietary software suite. Instead, the computer guy or girl can take the lead in customizing the open source software for the lab's exact needs.
Now that laboratory robots and other automated instruments have become more reliable, scientists will need highly reliable automation software to get the most out of their systems. There may never be one solution for every possible need. Flexibility and ease of use will be even more important in the future to keep up with the rapidly evolving market in workstation automation.