Research Services Core (RSC)

National Center For Advancing Translational Sciences

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

1. Automation a. Two accepted phase 1 proposals for an Automated Flask Cleaning device design. 2 accepted phase 2 SBIR proposals for Augmented Reality for rare diseases. b. Instrumentation and Automation scheduling site stats Automation Scheduling had a total of 142 reservations, 185 protocols were run, 80+ total users registered. Instrumentation site had a total of 112 reservations for stand-alone devices (limited to overflow equipment from Outlook but expanding), there were also 133 maintenance requests to report issues on equipment (increasing) with 200+ registered users. c. 10 complex robotic platforms (ranging from the Primary screening robot to the fully automated BSL-3 system) and at least 250 pieces of regularly used equipment comprised of pintool transfer devices, solenoid valve small volume liquid dispensers, bulk dispensers and washers, acoustic transfer devices, robotic arms, incubators, centrifuges, plate sealers and peelers are maintained by RSC saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. d. Collaboration with DPI ETB members and Arimation Robotics to help design, build and implement an automation-friendly instrument to measure and collect data for Real Time Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (RT-CETSA). Design and testing phases complete with factory acceptance testing planned for September 2023. 2. Compound Management a. Automated tube reformatting and acoustic dispensing system designed, built custom for, and guided by NCATS compound management cutting edge needs. A straight from storage tube acoustic dispenser and a complex liquid handling platform was integrated with our compound store along with necessary peripherals for plate prep/preservation and decapping/capping capabilities to fully automated tube picking through assay ready plate creation while eliminating extra intermediate pipetting steps therefore reducing plastic consumables by 1/3 to 1/2 depending on the process. Installation, site acceptance testing, and training complete. Validation in process. b. Busiest year in history. 2,236 FOTS orders were filled for DPI biology groups and collaborators. Compounds requested 79% internally and 21% externally delivered around the country. c. 4,612 plates produced (acoustic 40% and non-acoustic 60%) for 771 orders. 65% were for Drug Combination, 27% for follow up plates, and 8% were qHTS style plates. 51% of the acoustic spotted plates were produced on our multiple automated acoustic platforms. 3. Automated Cell Technologies a. CellTrio System: RoboCell designed, custom built, and guided by NCATS cell technologies cutting edge needs to increase capability as well as scale up from existing Sartorius CompacT SelecT units. Includes flask handling, decappng/capping, detector, confluency inspection/imaging, complex liquid handling and dispensing as well as storage. Factory acceptance testing is ongoing to ensure necessary functionality. b. Five robotic high throughput biomanufacturing and functional differentiation processes of hiPSCs for Nocicenptors, Astrocytes, Trophoblasts, Hypothalamic neurons as well as adaptation of patient iPSCs in system and clean up. Supports internal (Stem Cell, 3DTBPL, etc) and numerous external collaborators. Involves direct involvement and feedback from scientists on process and evaluation. c. Nociceptors cell bank generated from 12 iPSC lines into 792 cryovials containing 5M cells/vial = 3.96B Nociceptor cells. Collaborators include Boston Childrens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurobiology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Department of Cancer Biology, and Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, The University of Oxford. Astrocytes cell bank generated from 14 iPSC lines into 392 cryovials containing 0.4M 10M cells/vial = 2.5B Astrocyte cells. Hypothalamic neurons generated from 3 iPSC lines into 91 cryovials containing 5M cells/vial = 455M Hypothalamic neurons.