Innovative Solutions for Automated Lab Systems

Volltext: In recent years, the pace of evolution in laboratory automation has accelerated to meet the ever-increasing capacity needs of - for example - drug discovery laboratories. In addition to increasing the throughput of samples there are other formidable challenges: new methods are developed, product development cycles are shortened and systems are miniaturised. Hence, there is a need for modular, adapted and intelligent automation solutions. The Fraunhofer IPA is a technology partner and system integrator in different branches. Together with many partners from the pharmaceutical and biotechnolgical industry we conducted different projects in the field of laboratory automation. We will describe our automation strategy and point out the challenges and solutions with the help of some examples: 1. Design of a production line for diagnostic microarray chips 2. DNA-sample preparation: Integrated sample carrier for tissue disintegration 3. Miniaturised system for spotting of high densit y arrays.