ABB Robots Assist Deal with COVID By Automating Neutralizing Antibody Check For Analysis And Diagnostics

ABB Robotics has developed an automatic neutralizing antibody testing system with the College of Texas Medical Department (UTMB) that’s the simplest technique of figuring out a person’s immunity to numerous strains of COVID. Developed by ABB Robotics, Life Sciences and Healthcare Lab, situated on the Texas Medical Heart Campus in Houston, Texas, the system dramatically will increase the variety of neutralizing antibody assessments carried out, from 15 to over 1,000 day by day. With a higher variety of folks assessed for immunity in opposition to the totally different strains of the COVID virus, automating the testing will assist UTMB researchers acquire a higher understanding of the effectiveness of COVID vaccines.

The continued mutation of the COVID virus since its first look in late 2019 has introduced a significant problem for each medical researchers and governments, as each discover methods to regulate and restrict its unfold. Though quite a few vaccinations have been developed, the fast mutation of the virus makes discovering the simplest safety in opposition to every variant more difficult.

“The flexibility to hold out extra day by day assessments is the important thing to producing extra information on particular person immunity profiles that can assist management the additional unfold of the virus,” mentioned Dr. Michael Laposata, professor and chairman of the division of Pathology at UTMB. “By reworking the speed at which testing could be carried out and eliminating the necessity for giant numbers of laboratory employees being uncovered to the potential threat of an infection in guide testing, the automated system we’ve developed with ABB gives an correct, quick, versatile and secure method of assembly our targets.”

The purpose of the automated neutralizing antibody take a look at is to particularly detect a SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody with out cross-reaction with different an infection, making this assay a gold commonplace for COVID-19 serological testing. The ensuing information will then be used each by the individual being examined and by researchers to raised perceive immunity from vaccination or an infection. The information will even inform native policymakers’ selections on find out how to decrease the chance of additional an infection, equivalent to avoiding virus hotspots.

“This venture is a transparent instance of how robotics can enhance pace and effectivity, whereas making work safer for the researchers concerned,” mentioned Daniel Navarro, Managing Director of Shopper Segments and Service Robotics at ABB Robotics. “Working intently with UTMB, we’re combining our experience on biology, lab course of, automation and software program to develop and deploy an automatic robotic answer that considerably advances and informs our response to the COVID pandemic.

The automated neutralizing antibody take a look at was developed utilizing the RobotStudio® offline programming software program to mannequin, iterate and take a look at totally different combos of lab gear and robotic positions to develop the simplest working idea. On account of this course of, a working system was produced from inception into operation inside simply 18 months, enormously slicing the period of time usually required for a venture of this kind.

“What we managed to realize on this venture inside such a brief area of time is extraordinary—many multimillion-dollar corporations take a number of years to create options just like the one we’ve developed in a fraction of the time,” mentioned Juan Garcia, director of Laboratory Companies at UTMB.

“None of what we’ve achieved might have been finished with out ABB or any of the opposite events concerned on this venture. From the creation and simulation of a working idea in RobotStudio® software program by to delivering the bodily automated testing cells that at the moment are in use in our laboratory, that is the best expertise of teamwork I’ve witnessed in 35 years on this enterprise,” mentioned Laposata.

An extra good thing about the automated system is its capacity for use for different kinds of virus testing. The venture is only one of a number of tasks worldwide the place ABB robots are getting used to assist discover methods to guard in opposition to COVID. For extra info, go to our healthcare portal web page at https://new.abb.com/merchandise/robotics/industries/healthcare