A group of researchers in Japan has managed to automate key procedures for life science experiments, raising expectations of higher accuracy and reliability. The group, led by researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), have developed a program for experiments that, due to human factors, are often very difficult to reproduce.
Using robots, the same experiments were conducted multiple times producing almost identical results. Automation of procedures that are susceptible to human error is expected to help improve efficiency in the development of new drugs, as well as prevent research fraud.
Food company Ajinomoto and research institution Riken also took part in the project with AIST, alongside Keio University, Kyushu University and Tokyo Medical and Dental University. The researchers looked at combinations of procedures, such as like cultivating and transferring cells, as well as treating samples in a centrifuge, and quantified the movements involved.
Each participating organization installed the program in commercially available dual-arm robots and conducted the same experiments independently in their own labs. In an experiment on amplifying a specific gene, for example, the tests conducted at all the labs resulted in the amplification of the same gene. In a test to select compounds that bind with cancer cells from 48 different types, all the robots selected the same three.
These results show that robots controlled by the program can reproduce results from experiments. In an experiment to measure the amounts of various proteins in a cell, the measurements of proteins with high volumes varied by only a few percent.
Above content is from the published article in the "Nikkei - Asian Review" on 21 March 2017. To read the full article, please visit here.
