Lab Automation

[stephanie]

What sort of workflows would benefit from Lab Automation?  Is there a preference on which workflows work well? 

[Richard]

As someone working mainly on proteins, I'd find automated Dynabeads protocols useful (such as the one used by Fleury as a sample prep for COVID detection). Combining this with an automated SMART digest protocol would allow reproducible workflows for most peptide quantitation workflows.

[stephanie]

Thanks Richard! Do you have the info on the Fleury method?

[Richard]

The Fleury method utilized Sermag carboxylate particles, which are similar the Thermo Fisher Epoxy Dynabeads. They were able to successfully identify positive clinical patient samples (as determined by PCR) with a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 96%. They achieved this by enriching samples with magnetic beads, tryptically digesting and detecting peptides with a triple quad mass spec (TSQ Altis). By coupling their automated workflow with a multichannel Transcend TLX-4, they were able to create a robust and fast testing system that was fully automated on a Hamilton STARlet and was capable of testing over 500 samples in a 24-hour period.