Week 3 HW: Lab Automation

Assignment 1: Python Script for Opentrons Artwork

This week we are creating a Python file to run on an Opentrons OT-2 liquid handling robot to create flourescent designs. Using provided website I created a small “Cherry” pattern. I have little experience in coding on such platofrms, so Google Gemini was a big help to assist while writing a code: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1kZZStiHlPdG17vqHZPM2IhAQ3vTWkMRb#scrollTo=pczDLwsq64mk&line=76&uniqifier=1

cherry.png cherry.png

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Published Paper: Fabrication of cell culture hydrogels by robotic liquid handling automation for high-throughput drug testing (Torchia et al., 2024).

Description This paper addresses the difficulty of manual hydrogel fabrication, which is often prone to human error and low reproducibility due to the viscosity of the materials. The authors utilized an Opentrons OT-2 to automate the mixing and deposition of various hydrogel precursors (including methacrylated gelatin and others) into 96-well plates.

Relevance

  • The Opentrons OT-2 will be essential for the chemical formulation of the Bio-Blocks. Because the effectiveness of dissolution depends on the precise concentration of hexametaphosphate and citrate, the robot will be used to: Generate Concentration Gradients of alginate, HMPs and citarte & Ensure Consistency by automating the inoculation of cross linking agents
  • 3D-Printed Holders & Custom Hardware would be developed for molding structural blocks
  • Creation of bylayer hydorgels can be achieved using robot to deposit a “structral layer” wiht high cross-linking density