GB Innomech develops test station for Cambridge-based Fluidic Analytics

Automation consultancy, GB Innomech, has designed and developed an innovative new test station for Fluidic Analytics – the Cambridge-based protein analysis company – as a labour-saving R & D  tool to help process multiple test samples and to ensure product quality.
Fluidic Analytics was spun-out from the lab of Professor Tuomas Knowles at University of Cambridge and was shortlisted in the recent Business Weekly Awards.
The new test station will be used to automate and help speed up some of Fluidic Analytics’s routine R & D studies, as well as for final performance testing on its production units before shipping them to customers.
It works alongside the company’s fluidity systems for protein sizing and quantification.
The new station automates a series of time-consuming and repetitive liquid handling and sample processing steps required when analysing multiple protein samples.
The automated system, which is based around a Tecan Cavro Omni Flex liquid-handling robot, is programmed to sample a protein solution into a disposable chip before transferring it into a reader. The robot then waits for the analysis to complete before returning the chip to its original location.
Andrew Lynn, CEO at Fluidic Analytics, said: “Innomech’s new test station will be invaluable in helping Fluidic Analytics to expand and improve the operational efficiency of its in-house R & D, as well as streamlining final performance testing of our production units.”
The automated test station has been designed to process up to 96 protein samples in a single run, without any operator involvement and to ensure sample handling errors are avoided throughout.
The system can also run over 24 hours, enabling samples to be processed overnight which will help Fluidic Analytics to expand its R & D at minimal cost and to accelerate the development of new chip designs or instrument features for more advanced applications.
Innomech is based in Witchford, near Ely.