Design of an automated laboratory for high-throughput influenza surveillance

摘要: Global influenza surveillance is one of the most important approaches to combat spread of disease. Current laboratory methods for characterizing influenza are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and few viral strains undergo full characterization. 1 Even fewer strains from domestic poultry and swine or from wild aquatic birds are wellcharacterized. These strains are important for global surveillance since they are thought to be the precursors to pandemic influenza strains. 2 We have designed a highthroughput Global Bio Laboratory to address these surveillance needs. The goal of this project was to develop highspeed and high-volume laboratory capabilities for extensive surveillance and rapid and accurate detection and analysis of influenza. The workflow consists of surveillance, sample transportation, laboratory testing, data management and analysis. Five robotic systems have been designed for this laboratory: sample accessioning, biobanking, screening, viral culture, and sequencing. Sample accessioning logs barcodes, centrifuges, and aliquots samples are then sent to biobanking. The robotic biobank stores samples at) 80 C and reformats tubes for screening. The screening system extracts RNA and confirms the presence and subtype of influenza. Aliquots of positive samples are sent to the viral culturing system for scale-up. Finally, cultured samples are extracted and sent to the sequencing system for full genome sequencing. The sample accessioning, sequencing, and biobanking systems have been built, delivered, and validation processes are currently being completed. Robotic screening and culturing systems have been fully …