Completing End-to-End Assay Automation with Automated Data Analysis

Bio-IT World Virtual
October 6, 2020

Fully automated laboratories are commonplace in high-throughput screening, where the required operating scales could not be attained without robotics, scheduling and process control. Meanwhile, hundreds of lower throughput assays are routinely run throughout a pharma R&D organization, during target validation, lead optimization, toxicity, PK/PD, stability testing, and more. Despite the increased availability and affordability of automation solutions, these assays remain conducted by hand, including both wet-lab experimentation as well as data analysis and documentation.

Here, we describe how Genedata software enables Roche to fully automate the analysis of lower throughput assays. As an example, in a bacterial growth inhibition assay, the effect of compounds on various bacterial strains is compared under different media conditions. Data is analyzed by deriving dose-responses from the OD measurements at mid-exponential growth, and subsequently calculating potency ratios across media conditions. Before, the analysis of this assay required complex manual analysis involving a chain of software packages (instrument software, spreadsheets, electronic notebooks).

This error-prone and time-consuming process has now been replaced by a standardized and automated analysis in Genedata Screener^® that runs unattended starting with automatic capture of data from the instrument all the way through to creation of a final result summary for review and approval. Results are finally transmitted to Roche’s data warehouse in a one-click operation. Roche’s scientists still can intervene in case of data issues but are spared previous data preparation, reformatting, manual approximation and collation tasks. This enables Roche to achieve end-to-end automation, including of the data analysis, allowing Roche to save significant time, improve data quality and result robustness.