Apply here for GOSH’s 2022 Collaborative Development Program! (Phase 2)

Opportunities
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Pipetting bot’s application to round 2 :partying_face:

General information

  • Project name: “OScH micropipette set for standard and automated laboratory assays”.
  • Track: New Project Track
  • Contact name: Nicolás Méndez
  • Contact name: nmendez.ar@gmail.com

Proposal

1. Identified problem or need in OSH Community and lessons learned about this gap in Round 1

The overall project is about making a liquid handling robot, to automate molecular biology protocols of low to moderate complexity, on a tight budget.

However, the current pipette tool currently has some pros and cons:

  • The project relies on pipettes supplied by the user. This can be desirable or not, depending on whether there is a spare pipette set at the lab.
  • So far only the Pipetman micropipettes are supported by our adapter, because they are the most popular model at our workplace. There are cheaper micropipettes. These pipettes are easily serviceable locally, but have high acquisition and maintenance costs.
  • The adapter is good enough, but several mechanichal compromises were made to accomodate them (some range is lost, motors are oversized, etc.), and callibration is cumbersome.

We believe that a low cost, open source hardware micropipette set can be benefitial for labs on low budgets, and is essential to overcome the current performance limitations of our pipetting robot.

Secondly, while our software is functional and nice, we thank the suggestion about having interoperability with the OpenTrons software. It must be on the roadmap.

During round 2 we expect to add compatibility of the software to drive our and other CNC pipetting machines, whithout the need to rely so tightly on the electronic components on the OT2, but benefitting from their great open source software project.

2. Project proposal and upgrades from Round 1

The project proposal is twofold:

  • Develop OScH low-cost electronic micropipettes.
  • Adapt the OT2 protocol designer to our machine.

By making our own micropipettes, we aim to overcome the following limitations of our current design:

  • Maximize volume range, reduce weight and size, simplify callibration greatly.
  • Enable the user to make their own electronic micropipettes.
  • Reduce acquisition and maintenance costs.

Secondly, by adapting OT’s protocol designer, we hope to benefit from their quality software, and by enforcing interoperability, we hope to enable other pipetting robots to join and contribute to the growing OT2 ecosystem of protocols in in scientific publications.

Finally, by focusing on free and thorough documentation, we hope that the growing assembly instructions will enable individuals or groups with limited resources to automate pipetting protocols.

3. User profile and/or market and lessons learned about end-users in Round 1

Target users are early stage scientists and institutions who would benefit from automating preparations for routine assays (such as DNA cloning, screenings assays of several types, growth cruves, etc.), especially labs from regions with less funding.

4. Current state of the project (idea or prototype) with focus on progress done in Phase 1

The award from round 1 set the project on its way. So far we’ve spent on parts 10-20 times less than the cost of acquiring a full commercial solution, well under the 1000 USD mark.

Development and documentation are still under way, and will continue until the 31st of August (by an extension).

As posted on the forum, the prototype is under construction, and waiting for the toolchanging system to be completed.

5. Team Description (Per member: Name, Role, Motivation, Experience)

Most team members from round 1 remain:

  • Nicolás Méndez (IFIBYNE-UBA, CABA, Argentina).
  • Gastón Corthey (TECSCI S.A.S. and UNSAM, Buenos Aires, Argentina).
  • Martin Gambarotta (TECSCI S.A.S., Buenos Aires, Argentina).

We also plan to keep the new collaborators from round 1 in the team:

  • Renan and Solomon: open hardware machine design and CNC control.
  • Felipe: industrial designer.

Finally, we will also need a new collaboration with a Python software engineer.

6. Project objectives, expected results, and potential limitations for Phase 2

Our main objectives are:

  • Develop, prototype and document a free hardware micropipette set, that lowers initial investment and maintenance costs.
  • Adapt the OT2 protocol creator software to our machine. In this way pusblished open protocols could be used directly on a different machine.

The main challenges are precision in parts and chemichal compatibility with organic solvents. Fortunately TECSCI is well equipped to face them with Gastón’s chemistry expertise, and the available manufacturing equipment.

The main lesson learnt from Round 1 is that hardware development takes substantially more time than expected, especially documentation. Using GitBuilding is still of interest, and we will soon migrate the documentation on the repo’s README files to that platform.

7. Gantt chart (Milestones, tasks, deliverables, responsible, time frames)

Find our draft Gantt chart by following this link to an online spreadsheet.

8. Budget

Cost Category Details Units Estimated Cost in USD Why it’s needed
Subcontract Industrial designer and/or mechanichal engineer. 1 2220 Ergonomics of the micropipettes
Parts Prototyping parts and manufacturing costs. 1 1500 Development of the micropipettes.
Subcontract Programmer 1 3500 Adapt the OT2 protocol software to a generic CNC machine.
Fiscal sponsoring 5% fee charged by FUNDACEN. 1 380 To manage the funding and make payments.

Total budget: 7600 USD

9. Link to the public project repository

Gladly :slight_smile:

Best!

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