Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
￿ Retrieve results
￿ Record results automatically
￿ Support chain of custody for the invention
The scope of this work should not be underestimated. The ELE requires
that all equipment be online. This will mean that companies will standardize
on models, and perhaps they will need to replace much of their current inven-
tory, particularly for the more mundane pieces such as balances.
19.14
DARK LABORATORY
The ELE facilitates the concept of the dark laboratory, where a scientist identi-
fi es structures for testing. The substances are acquired through purchase or
synthesis and submitted to the biological assay queue. Results are posted back
to the requestor. This will drive the need for global standards for acquisition
and storage of data.
The work being undertaken at Southampton University is driving toward
the dark laboratory. The experiments being conducted involve mostly physi-
cochemical measurements with robots controlling the equipment. It is not a
major extension to use this approach to handle biological screening, but pro-
gressing to new chemical entities is more diffi cult due to the unpredictability
of chemical reactions. The move to biological entities as drugs is amenable to
remote control. Much of the work is already done by automated synthesizers
and could be adapted to be fully dark.
19.15
FUTURE OF ELN
At a high-level laboratory workfl ows share many components. First comes the
concept, then design. Once there is a design, then equipment, laboratory space,
and materials must be sourced. The experiment is executed and monitored.
The work product can be a physical entity such as a chemical or biological
substance, a cell line, a plasmid, a set of numbers, or a graphical object such
as a spectrum or chromatogram. Finally the experiment has to be dismantled
and the components cleaned or sent for disposal.
The ELN sits at the center of the workfl ow. It captures the concept; this is
perhaps the simplest step. A design evolves that taps the body of knowledge
that ELN usage has delivered. External sources of information are queried
and relevant information is brought back into the design notebook. The
concept notebook is a legal record; it provides evidence of fi rst to invent. The
design notebook may not be essential to support a patent, but it does provide
evidence of due diligence in the reduction to practice. Now the experiment is
set up, the design is transferred to the experiment record, and from here equip-
ment and materials are sourced; links to internal inventories and external
suppliers are needed. During execution samples may be taken and analyzed;
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