Rapid and Flexible Automation Workflow Development for qPCR with the Antha Standard Element Set
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- United Kingdom
Product
- Antha
- Gilson PIPETMAX®
- Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 5
Tech Stack
- Cloud Computing
- Automation Software
- Data Management
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Cost Savings
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Life Sciences
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Quality Analytics
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Cambridge Consultants is a global leader in disruptive innovation and technology-based consulting. Established in 1960, the company has delivered thousands of groundbreaking technology projects to clients worldwide across multiple industry sectors. Today, Cambridge Consultants employs over 800 staff across six sites and manages over 400 projects annually. The company started working with Synthace in 2016, recognizing the need for a scalable, robust tool to streamline their lab operations due to the high turnover of projects. Their labs needed to be flexible and capable of quickly developing and executing robust new protocols.
The Challenge
Cambridge Consultants, a world leader in disruptive innovation and technology-based consulting, was facing challenges in streamlining their lab operations due to the high turnover of projects. Their labs needed to be flexible and capable of developing and executing robust new protocols quickly. They required a scalable, robust tool that could provide end-to-end connectivity of devices and data to run protocols effectively, particularly complex multi-factorial experiments with many varying conditions. One area where they needed significant improvement was in the rapid and flexible development of liquid handling automation workflows. They needed a solution that could handle high throughput, fast execution speed, custom sample handling steps, robust sample traceability, excellent reproducibility, and minimized execution costs.
The Solution
Cambridge Consultants chose Synthace's Antha software to automate their entire qPCR workflow. This included interpretation of a qPCR experimental design input, automated dilutions, plate setup, and execution of the analytical run. The Antha software was used in conjunction with a Gilson PIPETMAX® automated liquid handling platform and an Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 5 instrument. Both devices were controlled by the Antha platform as part of a single workflow. The Antha software provided a high-level abstraction for the user with regards to programming liquid handling automation platforms. It also provided an optional interface for optimizing the resulting workflows with low-level parameter control. The Antha UI allowed for the rapid prototyping of experimental workflows while supporting the flexibility required for downstream optimization of a liquid handling workflow.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Hospital Inventory Management
The hospital supply chain team is responsible for ensuring that the right medical supplies are readily available to clinicians when and where needed, and to do so in the most efficient manner possible. However, many of the systems and processes in use at the cancer center for supply chain management were not best suited to support these goals. Barcoding technology, a commonly used method for inventory management of medical supplies, is labor intensive, time consuming, does not provide real-time visibility into inventory levels and can be prone to error. Consequently, the lack of accurate and real-time visibility into inventory levels across multiple supply rooms in multiple hospital facilities creates additional inefficiency in the system causing over-ordering, hoarding, and wasted supplies. Other sources of waste and cost were also identified as candidates for improvement. Existing systems and processes did not provide adequate security for high-cost inventory within the hospital, which was another driver of cost. A lack of visibility into expiration dates for supplies resulted in supplies being wasted due to past expiry dates. Storage of supplies was also a key consideration given the location of the cancer center’s facilities in a dense urban setting, where space is always at a premium. In order to address the challenges outlined above, the hospital sought a solution that would provide real-time inventory information with high levels of accuracy, reduce the level of manual effort required and enable data driven decision making to ensure that the right supplies were readily available to clinicians in the right location at the right time.
Case Study
Gas Pipeline Monitoring System for Hospitals
This system integrator focuses on providing centralized gas pipeline monitoring systems for hospitals. The service they provide makes it possible for hospitals to reduce both maintenance and labor costs. Since hospitals may not have an existing network suitable for this type of system, GPRS communication provides an easy and ready-to-use solution for remote, distributed monitoring systems System Requirements - GPRS communication - Seamless connection with SCADA software - Simple, front-end control capability - Expandable I/O channels - Combine AI, DI, and DO channels
Case Study
Driving Digital Transformations for Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices
Diagnostic devices play a vital role in helping to improve healthcare delivery. In fact, an estimated 60 percent of the world’s medical decisions are made with support from in vitrodiagnostics (IVD) solutions, such as those provided by Roche Diagnostics, an industry leader. As the demand for medical diagnostic services grows rapidly in hospitals and clinics across China, so does the market for IVD solutions. In addition, the typically high cost of these diagnostic devices means that comprehensive post-sales services are needed. Wanteed to improve three portions of thr IVD:1. Remotely monitor and manage IVD devices as fixed assets.2. Optimizing device availability with predictive maintenance.3. Recommending the best IVD solution for a customer’s needs.
Case Study
HaemoCloud Global Blood Management System
1) Deliver a connected digital product system to protect and increase the differentiated value of Haemonetics blood and plasma solutions. 2) Improve patient outcomes by increasing the efficiency of blood supply flows. 3) Navigate and satisfy a complex web of global regulatory compliance requirements. 4) Reduce costly and labor-intensive maintenance procedures.
Case Study
Harnessing real-time data to give a holistic picture of patient health
Every day, vast quantities of data are collected about patients as they pass through health service organizations—from operational data such as treatment history and medications to physiological data captured by medical devices. The insights hidden within this treasure trove of data can be used to support more personalized treatments, more accurate diagnosis and more advanced preparative care. But since the information is generated faster than most organizations can consume it, unlocking the power of this big data can be a struggle. This type of predictive approach not only improves patient care—it also helps to reduce costs, because in the healthcare industry, prevention is almost always more cost-effective than treatment. However, collecting, analyzing and presenting these data-streams in a way that clinicians can easily understand can pose a significant technical challenge.
