LabAutomation 2006 - SLAS

TP37
Donald J. Nagy
California Computer Research, Inc
Lake Arrownead, California
ccrican1@wmconnect.com
LabAutomation2006
Co-Author
Tadahiro Kawada
Kawada Indurties Inc.
Automated Specimen Transportation Increases Productivity
The task of moving specimens around the clinical laboratories occupies about 25%-35% of a technologist’s time. Leading edge solutions
from California Computer Research, Inc (CCRI) are designed to increase the technologists’ productivity by moving specimens to and from
various locations without human intervention. In developing this solution - CCRI addressed the following four aspects.
The CCRI RoboCart specimen carrier is used to move the specimens from receiving to processing workbenches. The RoboCarts move
the specimens using the current aisles in the Lab - eliminating the need to redesign the lab. The new CCRI RoboStation workbench is
designed with robot arms to perform specimen transfer into an accumulating ‘work in process’ shelving area. The robot arms - based on
LIS scheduling - transfer specimens to diagnostic units without human intervention. These units are either under autonomous mode or
under remote control mode of an Internet Call Center specialist. The specialist can monitor and control all of the functions including the
review and release of results.
For ‘walk-around-management’ - the Call Center specialist can operate the Kawada Industries Inc of Japan HRP-2 humanoid robot to
inspect and operate specimen processes as if the specialist were on-site. The HRP-2 with dual arms can walk around the clinical lab.
Using the HRP-2’s stereovision - this specialist can attend to ‘exception-to-the-rule’ demands. CCRI, located in California, has these new
units going through clinical testing in the U.S. and foreign countries.
TP38
Johanna Neumayer
Xiril AG
Hombrechtikon,
Switzerland
johanna.neumayer@xiril.com
Co-Author(s)
Ralf Bartl
Thomas Oberholzer
Xiril AG
Franz Bucher
Hans Werhonig
MedicTools AG
Automated Tissue Homogenization – A Novel “Touch-less” Solution for High-
Throughput Tissue Preparations
Many biological processes have been traced back to the molecular level in living cells and high effort has been spent on the analysis of
cellular functions. Significant progress has been made in the isolation and purification of nucleic acids or proteins from cells and tissue
material, but there is still no comprehensive technology known which allows to handle a broad range of cellular or tissue material in an
automated environment.
Xiril introduces a novel solution for tissue homogenization, DispomixR, which will be available as stand-alone and automated platforms.
For both, several outstanding features can be highlighted, such as an absolute contact- and contamination free operation. Mini-mixers are
directly integrated into a disposable device, therefore, a “touch-less” homogenization is guaranteed and the mixers are powerful enough
to handle a broad selection of cellular or tissue material, independent of its origin. The automated platform implements all features of the
stand-alone version, but it will in addition significantly contribute to increase the throughput of the sample preparation.
The novel Xiril platform for Automated Tissue Homogenization will contribute to induce a new generation of solutions for tissue
preparations.
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