Synthace recently featured in an article in Forbes by Gemma Milne. She describes how we have built a cloud platform with a simple and easy to use graphical interface that enables sophisticated and flexible control of lab robots.
Why do we need a universal language for biologists?
Put simply, biological research is lagging behind in its use of automation when compared to engineering industries. When you consider the aerospace and automobile industries, you might think of robots carrying out automated processes to ensure reproducible design and manufacturing. This is a huge advance from how cars and aeroplanes were built 40-50 years ago when large production lines of people were required to perform simple tasks.
These advancements are thanks to the implementation of computer-aided design, computer-aided engineering and automation, enabled by a suite of digital tools that have been developed since the 1980s.
As Gemma writes, biology also has robots and automation that can perform biological experiments, but “…there’s not been the same push for an integrated digital platform to design, manage, automate and analyse the evermore complex process of life science.”
Adding, “biology is well-known for its reliance on repetitive manual tasks which require scientists to be physically pipetting or cell-culturing in the fume hood; for its lack of reproducible results when experiments are conducted and recorded in such a non-standardised manner; and for its "brute force" trial-and-error approach to drug discovery.”
Here at Synthace, we trying to change that. We’ve built a simple, easy-to-use and intuitive cloud-based platform that is device agnostic. As our CEO Tim Fell explained in the article:
“We don’t make equipment, we make a software platform that makes equipment more usable”.
What is the impact of the Universal Language for Biology?
The Synthace platform is a simple, easy-to-use and intuitive cloud-based system that speeds up your science. Overall, our data reveal using it can result in a full-time equivalent saving of up to 72 hours.
We recently worked with Oxford Biomedica to help them perform a multifactorial optimisation of their lentiviral transfection/transduction system for improved vector titre and robustness.
Lentiviral vectors deliver gene therapies to cells and have proved successful and safe in multiple clinical trials. However, the process of vector particle production can lead to ineffective as well as active vector particles. The optimal production of active over ineffective vector particles and their ultimate efficacy is largely determined by the respective ratios of the many components contributing to the transfection process.
Oxford Biomedica used the Synthace platform to plan and execute a complex multifactorial experiment to help address questions surrounding yield and robustness of vector particle production.
