Opentrons, a frontrunner in lab automation, proclaims the launch of its Opentrons Flex robotic, a brand new era of reasonably priced and easy-to-program liquid-handling lab robots designed to degree the enjoying area for labs of all sizes and convey superior lab automation to extra researchers than ever earlier than. Fusing superior robotics with a deep ecosystem of open-source software program, the Flex is appropriate with AI instruments and has near-limitless potential to study new protocols. The brand new product builds on the momentum the corporate has with clients together with the Mayo Clinic, Harvard, and MIT.
The Opentrons Flex robotic. Picture Credit score: Opentrons
Opentrons’ mission is to empower scientists to get extra lab work performed the way in which they need. Whereas legacy laboratory robotics require in depth software program data and months of coaching, the Flex’s open-source design and accessible API make it enticing to scientists throughout the life sciences, particularly these advancing generative AI. The Flex was designed to be appropriate with “design-of-experiment” applications, together with AI-driven brokers. And as extra scientists contribute purposes to the platform, the Flex’s open-source nature permits Opentrons to higher prepare its AI algorithms to allow much more seamless automation, making life science extra reproducible and adaptable to labs world wide.
For a lot too lengthy, scientists have been constrained by their laboratory instruments – an issue that cumbersome and costly conventional automation instruments have but to resolve affordably and effectively… By making lab automation as straightforward as utilizing a smartphone, the Flex robotic democratizes entry to automation in life sciences analysis.
Jon Brennan-Badal, CEO of Opentrons
The US Division of Vitality’s Argonne Nationwide Laboratory has bought a number of OT-2s over the previous couple of years, which have been a predominant element of our self-driving lab growth. We’ve been impressed by Opentrons’ engineering transparency, open-source philosophy, and the way the OT-2 is definitely customizable… We stay up for seeing what the brand new Opentrons Flex has to supply when it comes to extra sturdy liquid dealing with capabilities and elevated throughput .
Casey Stone, a pc scientist and bioinformatician at Argonne
At Khosla Ventures, we make investments early in concepts which can be daring and impactful… With Flex, we’re transferring towards inverting the present one robotic to 10 bench scientists ratio to 10 robots to at least one bench scientist imaginative and prescient for throughput in analysis labs.
Vinod Khosla, founding father of Khosla Ventures which has invested in Opentrons since inception
The Flex robotic stands aside from legacy lab automation options with profound differentiators:
- A fraction of rivals’ value: With a complete value of possession simply 1/tenth of its opponents, the Flex robotic permits labs to increase their budgets 10 instances additional, making superior automation accessible to extra researchers.
- Days vs. weeks: The Flex robotic might be rapidly arrange or reconfigured for a brand new utility, in a fraction of the time sometimes required, permitting scientists to commit extra time to their analysis.
- Self-learning capabilities: Utterly open entry to Opentrons’ library of over 500 group and verified protocols. Providing an unparalleled vary of choices, the Flex can be utilized out-of-the-box or personalized to create novel experiments utilizing generative AI instruments.
The user-friendly Flex robotic adapts to experiments because of modular {hardware} and highly effective software program instruments that simplify lab automation, scale back errors, and make transformative, reproducible analysis doable throughout the life sciences trade, and for the sphere of molecular biology particularly. At launch, the Flex may have a number of flagship configurations constructed with genomics and proteomics workflows in thoughts.
The mixing of the Opentrons OT-2 has revolutionized the way wherein we supply out experiments in our lab… With the OT-2, we had been in a position to incorporate automation into our workflow inside per week and at a value of just a few thousand {dollars} and the open-source software program platform permits us to get inventive with the platform and clear up new issues. I’m eagerly anticipating the potential for additional enhancements in our lab’s effectivity and suppleness via the usage of the Flex.
Jonathan Sexton, College of Michigan Assistant Professor of Inside Drugs, Medical College, and Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy
Opentrons have already achieved important traction within the scientific group. Its robots have been shipped to greater than 40 international locations and are key instruments in labs world wide trying to automate their molecular biology and biochemistry analysis. At the moment, 1000’s of scientists and establishments, together with 70 % of the highest 10 largest pharma firms and 90 % of the highest 50 biology analysis universities, depend on Opentrons robots of their labs. Opentrons additionally has OEM partnerships via which clients can leverage its {hardware} and software program stack capabilities.
sources:
https://opentrons.com/information/opentrons-flex-lab-robot-launches/?utm_campaign=flex-launch-announcement-campaign&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social
