Week 3 HW: Lab Automation

Post-Lab Questions

1. Find and describe a published paper that utilizes the Opentrons or an automation tool to achieve novel biological applications.

  • Dettinger et al. (2022), “Open-source personal pipetting robots with live-cell incubation and microscopy compatibility,” published in Nature Communications.

  • The authors introduce PHIL (Pipetting Helper Imaging Lid), an open-source, low-cost pipetting robot designed for liquid handling during live-cell experiments and microscopy workflows. PHIL is important because it addresses a real problem in academic labs: many experiments are small-scale, frequently changing, and not well suited to large industrial automation systems, which are often expensive and hard to adapt.

  • The paper shows that PHIL can automate tasks such as media exchange, stimulation, and immunostaining while remaining compatible with time-lapse microscopy. This makes it possible to run dynamic live-cell experiments with less manual intervention and better reproducibility. Another key strength is accessibility: the system is built from 3D-printable parts and low-cost components, making advanced lab automation more realistic for smaller or resource-limited research labs.

2. Write a description about what you intend to do with automation tools for your final project.

  • Automate a screening workflow for coral-related biomineralization conditions

    • I want to use an automation tool (such as Opentrons) to set up and run a small screening experiment using coral proteins. The robot would prepare multiple reaction conditions (different buffers, salts, and controls) in a consistent and repeatable way.

  • Compare material or condition combinations in a plate-based format

    • I want to test which conditions may better support coral-relevant mineralization behavior (for example, comparing protein vs control conditions across different solution chemistries). Automation helps because it can precisely mix and dispense many combinations with less manual error.

  • Use a custom holder / insert setup for non-standard samples

    • If needed, I may design a simple 3D-printed holder to keep small material samples or test coupons in a fixed position during pipetting. This would make the workflow more reproducible and easier to scale across replicates.

Final Project Ideas

See slide deck