Life sciences analysis and diagnostics are producing increasingly more information yearly by rising throughput. Labs that don’t adapt are being left behind.
Guide pH testing is without doubt one of the most time-consuming and error-prone duties on the bench. Between standardizing meters, equilibration time, and probe cleansing, testing even a handful of samples usually requires a disproportionate period of time to finish. This vital time requirement also can result in measurement variability, notably if samples can’t be examined concurrently or by the identical technician.
Automated pH meters have been developed particularly to deal with these ache factors and reduce the workflow bottlenecks and errors related to measuring pH in giant numbers of samples. In doing so, labs of all sizes have elevated information high quality, compliance, and effectivity whereas benefiting from a fast return on funding (ROI).
Current technological advances and elevated competitors between automated lab gear builders have elevated the standard and flexibility of kit whereas lowering its worth, making high-value, entry-level automated pH meters extra accessible than ever.
Maximize effectivity and eradicate bottlenecks automated pH testing
Automating pH measurements has two major results within the Lab:
1) Bettering the effectivity of lab employees
2) Rising the general productiveness of the diagnostics or analysis program
pH measurement automation will increase lab personnel effectivity instantly by permitting employees members to delegate the monotonous, time-consuming job to an automatic system. This frees up time for lab employees to carry out different essential features within the lab, together with information evaluation and reagent preparation. These are duties that can not be automated as simply. Lab employees are sometimes more than pleased to delegate these tedious lab obligations to robotic techniques that aren’t liable to boredom or fatigue.
Automation can nearly eradicate the potential for pH measurement variability by performing all pH assessments on the similar time and in the very same method (Determine 1). Whereas delegating monotonous duties to inexperienced, much less educated, and cheaper staffing choices could appear engaging for some lab managers, variability or errors in pH measurements can shortly erase any perceived beneficial properties when experiments fail, or measurement variability masks refined results in an experiment.
Determine 1. Variations in day-to-day variability. The graphic on the left depicts giant day-to-day variability between measurements versus the graphic on the suitable, which illustrates a smaller quantity of day-to-day variability in measurements. Supply
Automation enhances lab productiveness by eliminating throughput bottlenecks, permitting this system to course of and take a look at extra samples and generate extra information. As life sciences diagnostics and analysis develop into more and more high-throughput, cell tradition, phenotyping, and drug discovery protocols usually require automated assessments to effectively decide pH at totally different time factors throughout an assay.
Automated applied sciences have elevated the potential throughput and total productiveness of labs worldwide; granting companies are taking discover. Elevated pattern numbers improve the statistical energy of experiments, permitting researchers to uncover extra refined results that may in any other case go undiscovered. Many granting companies will prioritize funding for labs that combine new applied sciences aimed toward rising analysis and diagnostic productiveness and effectivity.
Enhance information high quality and compliance
Let’s face it: points with information high quality usually stem from human error.
For instance, failure to keep up and clear the electrode between samples could make pH readings vulnerable to errors from contaminants and carryover from earlier samples. Much less-experienced technicians also can improperly calibrate guide pH meters or fail to calibrate them in any respect, leading to inaccurate pH readings (Determine 2). Downstream lab personnel decoding datapoints could not know the way or if the pH meter was calibrated or cleaned correctly when decoding experiment outcomes, which may compromise the accuracy of whole research.
Determine 2. Inaccurate pH measurements are sometimes attributable to consumer error. Supply
Lab personnel also can get sluggish or inaccurate readings from a pH meter with a dried electrode. Distractions may cause technicians to depart the bench briefly, solely to come back again to a pH meter with an electrode bulb that has been sitting out within the open for a lot too lengthy. Rehydrating the electrode takes quarter-hour, if carried out in any respect.
Automation can eradicate these consumer errors by constantly cleansing and air-drying the electrode between samples, calibrating the electrode, and storing the electrode bulb within the acceptable storage answer between measurement runs. As mentioned within the earlier part, automating pH testing moreover decreases measurement variability.
Moreover, some laboratory purposes require compliance with FDA 21 CFR Half 11 to make use of digital data and signatures to automate and streamline quality-control checks and guarantee traceability. Many automated pH measurement techniques provide gear and software program compliant with 21 CFR Half 11, together with the entry-level Hudson Robotics Rapid_pH automated pH meter, making compliance reporting extra easy than ever earlier than.
Weigh the prices and advantages of automated pH testing
Excessive-throughput automation can show extremely useful to life sciences analysis and diagnostics. In contrast to legacy testing gear, automated testing gear is designed to deal with the massive variety of samples and fixed measurement required for large-scale pattern processing and evaluation.
The commonest barrier to automating pH measurements is the up-front price of an automatic system. Most lab managers and directors, nonetheless, are shocked to find out how reasonably priced and versatile an entry-level system might be, notably for plate-based platforms. Entry-level techniques have the additional benefit of requiring few, if any, infrastructure modifications as they sometimes sit on a laboratory bench away from high-traffic areas.
It is vital for lab directors to totally perceive the long-term beneficial properties of automation within the lab earlier than dismissing automated techniques outright (Determine 3). Whereas few research define precise greenback figures or payback intervals to find out the ROI for numerous lab automation techniques, platforms equally enhance the associated fee and time effectivity of medical and analysis labs.
Histology labs that incorporate automation, for instance, get better the upfront and any related infrastructure prices of platforms by lowering the lab personnel prices required to finish a specific job, similar to pH measurement. Whether or not these hours are eradicated from the lab price range or recovered by utilizing these hours for different much less routine duties, the time and price effectivity of the lab improves and productiveness will increase.
The second-way lab automation reduces prices is by nearly eliminating consumer error. Extra particularly, the standardization of measurements by automated platforms will increase testing uniformity, lowering variability as a result of sampling variation between technicians and consumer error and fatigue. Whereas figures don’t exist particularly for diminished error charges for automated pH measurements, automated bar coding and different workflow standardization in histology labs can lower sure errors over 50% and slide errors as much as 90%.
Determine 3. The ways in which lab automation can enhance effectivity and enhance information high quality within the laboratory.
Automation also can pay dividends in much less tangible methods, similar to shorter workflow cycles and protocol turnaround instances. This may end up in improved buyer satisfaction and personnel productiveness, extra environment friendly analysis, and decreased consumable and reagent prices as a result of much less waste related to consumer error.
Estimate return on funding
One method to decide the cost-associated ROI over time is to estimate the quantity of FTE saved by implementing lab automation platforms. By dividing the variety of FTE required for testing by the quantity of testing carried out earlier than and after lab automation (Determine 4), management can roughly estimate the payback interval of a selected automation platform. As a reference, the Hudson Rapid_pH platform can take a look at a single 96-well plate in between one hour and ten minutes and one hour and 45 minutes.
Determine 4. Evaluating the personnel prices of testing per unit quantity earlier than (B) and after (A) lab automation.
As a result of personnel prices are one of many highest line objects in any lab price range, any stage of automation has the potential to reap vital total financial savings. Histology labs, for instance, have been capable of cut back prices by as a lot as 8.8% per processed slide by integrating automation and modestly lowering consumable and reagent use. As an illustration, a $75,000 automated platform designed to label tubes has a payback interval of solely 2.8 years if one technician delegates the labeling of 400 tubes to the platform 5 days per week.
Moreover, automation can enhance the quantity of testing that happens exterior of regular working hours. For labs accustomed to processing and testing samples through the typical workday, automation can considerably enhance information acquisition and productiveness.
Take into account automated pH choices
Not each laboratory wants full automation of a workflow or whole automation of a lab, however managers and directors usually favor lab gear with the flexibility to adapt to new and altering protocols and combine with different techniques over time.
Automated pH platforms are designed to finish the calibration, stabilization time, measurement, rinsing, drying, and recording of the pattern pH consequence. At the moment, automated pH measurement platforms exist as a single, standalone machine or might be added as a operate of an autosampling system with extra testing parts and software program. Nevertheless, present autosampling techniques work with a lot bigger volumes than most high-throughput codecs, limiting their practicality in lots of lab settings.
In distinction, techniques that automate solely pH measurement are designed round normal SBS (Society for Biomedical Sciences) pattern plate sizes which are extra suitable with high-throughput purposes. The Hudson Rapid_pH, as an example, can adapt to measuring 24 to 96-well plates and volumes as little as 75 ml. The platform also can take a look at samples in deep-well tradition plates as much as 50 mm in top.
Robotic pH measurement platforms will also be geared up with extra options relying on the necessities of a specific assay. Each autosampling techniques and high-throughput automated pH meters might be fitted with distinctive pH probes explicitly designed for measuring extra viscous samples and wash techniques that may totally clear the probe between samples. A static wash properly will also be added to techniques the place detergent washing or sterilization is required between measurements.
Protocols that require pH measurements at totally different temperatures (Determine 5) will also be accommodated by introducing a temperature-controlled warmth block and temperature compensation software program to the robotic platform. The Hudson Rapid_pH system moreover gives FDA CFR 21 Half 11 compliance software program for labs that require digital reporting.
Determine 5. Temperature-controlled warmth block in a Hudson Robotics Rapid_pH automated laboratory pH meter.
Many producers of lab automation options have designed a whole suite of merchandise and software program to automate frequent workflows within the lab. With rising competitors out there, it’s essential to pick out lab gear that may be paired with gear options from different producers when protocols change or extra automation is required. Lab automation scheduling software program, similar to Hudson Robotics SoftLinx, can interface with gear from quite a lot of producers to open and shut microplate doorways, run a specific protocol, test instrument standing, learn the run output, and make responses based mostly on measurement outcomes.
Lastly, automation gear needs to be straightforward to make use of and require little coaching time: automated options are designed to avoid wasting personnel time, in spite of everything. Firms promoting automated lab gear might be able to present potential patrons with contact data for labs which have bought and used their robotic lab options. Connecting with labs with related workflows and built-in automated platforms will help managers higher perceive the professionals and cons of utilizing particular devices on the bench.
Excessive-throughput analysis and diagnostics are revolutionizing the life sciences and accelerating the velocity of discovery. Automating routine duties like pH measurement can profit labs in numerous methods, together with price, time, and reagent financial savings and extra constant, larger high quality information. Smaller labs have extra high-value, entry-level choices for lab automation than ever, and elevated competitors has made pricing rather more aggressive within the final decade. Very like pure choice, labs should select to adapt or endure the implications in an more and more aggressive panorama.
