The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Robotics And The Laboratory

By Marc Brown, Ph.D., MedPharm Co-founder now MLBT Investments, and Jon Lenn, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer

The latest wave of the industrial revolution, which integrates physical and cyber technological advances, is dramatically reshaping life sciences and laboratory services. A critical evaluation of experimental workflows reveals numerous tasks ripe for automation, which is key to freeing experienced scientists to focus on complex interpretation and critical thinking.

Adopting an end-to-end approach, laboratories are redesigning assays for higher throughput by standardizing sample collection and integrating liquid-handling robots coupled with analytical instrumentation. This automated workflow, spanning analytical, preformulation performance testing, and tissue culture departments, significantly decreases timelines, cuts down on experimental variation, and tightens precision. The evolution includes engineering high-throughput automated diffusion cells for gold-standard IVPT and IVRT studies, along with integrating automated systems for nucleic acid purification and stability assessment. Discover how further implementation of robotics in semi-solid formulation development and leveraging large data with machine learning is set to unlock new potential.

Learn more about the practical application of automation in enhancing drug development workflows and future innovation.