Automation and Robotics for Biotechnology

Facility/equipment: Facility

  • LocationShow on map

    Tekniikantie 21

    VTT FutureHub

    Espoo

    02150

    Finland

Overview

Description

VTT's Biofoundry accelerates industrial biotechnology research by utilizing laboratory automation for high-throughput engineering and characterization of bacterial, fungal, and plant cell strains. With in-house created protocols for automated workflows and scalable cultivation methods we can generate thousands of genetic modifications and test their effect on phenotype. After primary strain engineering and screening phase, the best strains move towards process development at scales up to 200 ml. Biolectors and ambr bioprocess robots enable the secondary screening phase, which focuses on process condition optimization. By controlling various relevant variables, such as pH, aeration and feed rate, we can screen for the best strains and process parameters that can be scaled up to larger bioreactors in our fermentation facility.

 

FLUENT 780, Tecan
· Liquid handling station capable of versatile pipetting tasks
· Suitable especially for molecular biology work (e.g. plasmid purification, protein assays)
· Flexible protocols allow complex assembly schemes for combinatorial DNA assembly and PCR
· Span-8 head: flexible pipetting from tubes and reservoirs
· Magnetic plate allows separation and purification of plasmid/linear DNA, proteins
· SPARK multimode plate reader, Agilent centrifuge, thermoshaker and integrated Tecan vacuum station
· Pickolo colony picking integration allows to pick microbial colonies from agar plates (e.g. Petri dish, Omnitray) to any SBS standard microplate

Biomek i7, Beckman Coulter
· Liquid handling station for microbial strain engineering and phenotyping
· Throughput capability of tens of microtiter plates at a time
· Integrated with multiple devices (Cytomat shaking incubator with temperature and humidity control, Cytomat plate hotel, iD5 plate reader, Automated Thermal Cycler and thermoshaker)
· Both Span8 and 96 pipetting heads for versatile usage
· Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformations
· High-throughput spectrophotometric enzymatic assays

Biolector Pro and Biolector II, Beckman Coulter (formerly m2p-labs)
· Biolectors are ideal for optimization of cultivation parameters prior to scale-up - “Bioreactor on a plate”
· 48-well format plate
· Non-invasive optical online measurement of pH, DO, biomass and multiple fluorescence wavelengths
· Microfluidics for fed-batch mode and pH adjustment (PRO)
· Anaerobic chamber (II) for anaerobic batch cultivations

ambr250, Sartorius
· High-throughput fermentations for optimizing parameters for scale-up purposes
· Two devices, each one has 24 parallel 250 ml bioreactors
· Individually controlled vessel positions that allow to control and monitor all process parameters, e.g. temperature,aeration, stirring, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), foaming, off-gases (CO2, O2) and feed rate online
· Online measurement of biomass
· Timed automated sampling for offline analyses

Keywords

  • biofoundry
  • high-throughput screening
  • strain assembly
  • parallel bioreactors
  • bioreactor on a plate
  • bioprocess engineering
  • microbiology
  • synthetic biology

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