Automating Biobanking: From Complexity to Assembly-Line Efficiency

Lifelines is a large, multi-generational, prospective cohort study that includes over 167,000 participants from the northern population of the Netherlands. Through the length, size and in-depth examination Lifelines provides excellent opportunities for studies worldwide unravelling the aetiology of multifactorial diseases focusing on multifactor risk factors.

To open the biobank for large-scale research projects, Lifelines needed to examine the process of data and bio sample collection and release. To meet the turn-around-times and high-quality requirements of scientific research, Lifelines has focused on a far-reaching form of automation. The lab and storage were set up to realize large sample projects in a short time with high quality and a minimum of human resources.

Lifelines started together with third parties’, the development of biobank specific automation for sample reception through pipetting and DNA extraction, storage until the release for research. This flow exists out of different machines that are where possible connected physically but always on IT level, to arrive at a high-quality level sample preparation workflow.

The installation, validation and optimalisation is however a continuous process. The through-put has increased immensely with a steep reduction of labour costs and turn-around-time. Further optimalisation will be focussed om increasing the quality of the DNA extraction and decreasing process time. In the meanwhile, different projects are set-up to make Lifelines a green biobank by optimalization of the storage space, switching colling systems and optimalisation of the automated store.

This automation to the highest level improves quality, reduces turn-around-time, guarantees quality, and makes Lifelines ready for the future.

– Hilde Laeremans –