How Much Automation?
Applications for lab automation range from the use of multitip pipetters to fully automated robotic stations for a high throughput operation. The amount of automation that any lab requires depends on its situation. While an academic research lab may choose to use only some instruments to increase productivity and eliminate a tedious task, a drug discovery unit in a pharmaceutical company will probably want to automate all phases of its research. Scientists can automate many basic laboratory procedures with minimal effort. Dispensing cell culture media into flasks, filling multiwell plates for assays, washing, rinsing, and applying reagents in an immunoassay all present opportunities for automation to one degree or another, depending on the number of samples being processed. German company Eppendorf AG, The Hamilton Company, and VWR International are among the many companies that offer user friendly instruments for such tasks. Laboratories that work with DNA sequencing and genomics have
