A robotic arm refills thousands of test tubes uncomplainingly every day We all imagine that a typical day of a molecular biologist has a lot of laboratory work, refilling and labeling test tubes with micro quantities of several solutions. These experiments take place in laboratories containing a range of expensive medical equipment, such as high-resolution microscopes. Conducting an experiment often takes several days to complete and the data (microscope images, tables with numerical values etc.) is then interpreted by the researchers to draw conclusions regarding their initial hypothesis. However, the cloud lab developed by Arctoris is aiming to make life easier for cancer lab researchers. The researchers configure their experiment online within a few minutes, and advanced robotics conduct the experiment, delivering high-quality data. This means the researchers can spend their time with more significant scientific work. In addition, the experimental throughput can be increased, as robotics allow for parallelization of experimental processes, thus allowing for faster progress in cancer research. It is comparable with the introduction of Amazon Web Services: before AWS, companies used to have their own server-rooms, and it would take a lot of money and effort to set up a web-based company; nowadays, you can set up your operations on AWS within minutes – no more server-rooms, no more CapEx, a much more agile approach. Arctoris raised a pre-Seed round in February 2018, and in addition won several non-dilutive R&D grants, including a European Union grant. With this funding, the company set up its first robotic work cell, built an IP portfolio surrounding the core technologies, and started generating first revenue. Martin -Immanuel Bittner Co-founder at Arctoris explains that they are currently raising a seed round of $2m, which they hope to close within the next few weeks. With this seed round the company plans to expand its product portfolio, scale sales, and build more strategic partnerships in the drug discovery space. But what makes researchers feel safe that the results will be as accurate as if they had carried out the tests on their own? Right now, confidence in the accuracy of the research findings is low. Studies by pharma companies Bayer and Amgen have proven that up to 89% of published research findings cannot be reproduced by independent third parties. There is a number of reasons to blame for this lack of reproducibility, such as lack of standardization, use of non-validated reagents, and inconsistent experimental conditions. Arctoris acknowledges these serious issues and tries to address them. All experiments conducted at the Arctoris automated lab are exactly executed as specified by the researchers who order an experiment; only validated reagents and procedures are used in combination with extensive, transparent audit trail documentation supplied by the company, allowing for confidence in the accuracy of the findings. In addition, every experiment is run with in-built QC, as positive and negative controls are added at every process step. The whole field of robotic cloud labs is extremely new, and moving fast, with the first two cloud labs being Transcriptic and Emerald Cloud Lab in the U.S., working on molecular biology and chemistry, respectively. Undoubtedly, cost reduction and trust will primarily benefit labs as they will turn into the decisive factors for success stories.
Arctoris has created a cloud-based service which enables researchers to design cancer research experiments online to be conducted by advanced robotics, which carry out the tests and then submit the resulting data. The system allows more experiments to be carried out in parallel, speeding up the research process and freeing up researchers’ time to be spent on further scientific study.