Laboratory automation is a multidisciplinary research strategy for hands-off experimentation mediated through robotic devices and control algorithms; it involves technicians, scientists, and the whole spectrum of engineering professionals. Lab automation can increase lab productivity, data quality, and worker safety while also decreasing sample processing cost and turnaround time. 

The introduction of robotic devices to the lab space has resulted in the development of experimental procedures that would otherwise be unfit for humans with traditional science tools, for instance, experiments involving hazardous materials, exhaustive daylong protocols, or experiments demanding precise variable control. I've had to opportunity to work with robotics both designing and executing experiments that would otherwise be impossible. During my employment with Calibr, I worked with a fully automated system to screen a variety of whole cell and biochemical assays against millions of drug candidates in exhaustive protocols that could extend to multi-day procedures. I'm currently a Graduate Student at the Knight Lab were we use a variety of precise high throughput liquid handling  devices in a semi-automated fashion to process samples in timed multistep enzymatic reactions for next generation sequencing. Click on the images to learn more