Management of experimental workflows in robotic cultivation platforms.

In the last decades, robotic cultivation facilities combined with automated execution of workflows have drastically increased the speed of research in biotechnology. In this work, we present the design and deployment of a digital infrastructure for robotic cultivation platforms. We implement a Workflow Management System, using Directed Acyclic Graphs, based on the open-source platform Apache Airflow to increase traceability and the automated execution of experiments.

Thermal segment microwell plate control for automated liquid handling setups.

Automated high-throughput liquid handling operations in biolabs necessitate miniaturised and automatised equipment for effective space utilisation and system integration. This paper presents a thermal segment microwell plate control unit designed for enhanced microwell-based experimentation in liquid handling setups. The development of this device stems from the need to move towards geometry standardization and system integration of automated lab equipment.

Model-Based Characterization of Strains with Impaired Glucose Uptake.

The bacterium is a widely used organism in biotechnology. For high space-time yields, glucose-limited fed-batch technology is the industry standard; this is because an overflow metabolism of acetate occurs at high glucose concentrations. As an interesting alternative, various strains with limited glucose uptake have been developed.

Nonlinear state estimation as tool for online monitoring and adaptive feed in high throughput cultivations.

Robotic facilities that can perform advanced cultivations (e.g., fed-batch or continuous) in high throughput have drastically increased the speed and reliability of the bioprocess development pipeline.