Operational scale-up is a hurdle that scientists inevitably face during the successful development of a biological product as they move from discovery to manufacturing. Scaling up can be complicated, potentially requiring new technologies or infrastructure (i.e., pivoting from small-batch adherent cell culture to large-batch suspension cell culture). Scaling up also cannot compromise product quality or consistency. Incorporating automation can be vital to overcoming scale-up obstacles, helping scientists improve both workflow efficiency and throughput as well as product consistency and quality.
Fundamentally, automation uses mechanical and programming means to operationalize manual processes to make them more efficient and consistent. The effects of automation can be felt even for smaller scale operations—a handheld electronic pipette improves volume dispensing consistency and reduces operator fatigue and a programmable PCR machine reads multiple plates sequentially without a user’s direct presence. As such, scientists in the discovery stage will want to leverage automation at the individual ...
