(Chatsworth, CA) "But up to now, no one has combined all the latest and greatest in the way this machine has." "A lot of systems have employed one or two of this machine's technical features," says Curt Wilson, vice president of engineering for Delta Tau Data Systems, Inc. The X-axis gantry robot is built atop two linear motor stages, which serve as the foundation for Y-axis motion.Įngineers who helped develop the machine say that its ability to successfully combine high speed with high precision bodes well, not just for genomics, but for pick-and-place machinery, test devices, measurement systems, and assembly equipment.
"But to do it within one micron is unheard of." "To start, stop, and settle 25 times per second is awesome enough," says JoeBen Bevirt, president of a firm involved in the development of the DotBot. And the key to that effort is the ability to extract mounds of raw data using extremely high-speed automated machinery, like the DotBot. Ultimately, the ability to quickly collect so much data could enable pharmaceutical companies and human genome researchers to come closer to mapping human genes and developing drugs to cure a host of deadly diseases, ranging from malaria to various cancers. As a result of such technology, they say they expect to advance their efforts from the study of a few genes a day to thousands per day. The technology enables genomics researchers, whose data requirements could choke a supercomputer, to collect far more information than they could ever gather by hand.
Then it keeps doing cond, after second, after second.until thousands or even tens of thousands of drops have been placed. Like a super-automated eye dropper, the DotBot lifts DNA-rich fluids from a trough, then delivers them in a flash of motion to 25 separate glass slides, all in under a second. Indeed, the likes of the DotBot have never been seen before, even in the high-tech world of genomics. "We had to tone it down so that it didn't scare anyone." (Goleta, CA), the company that integrated the power transmission and control elements into the machine. "It was like a machine gun," says Mike Everman, president of Bell-Everman, Inc. Unlike conventional control schemes, the DotBot control system does all calculations in one central processor, minimizing delays.Įngineers who helped developed the machine say that its "move, stop, and drop" actions are so fast, and so accurate, that they had to deliberately slow it down. And, incredibly, the DotBot makes all of its high-speed deposits within a micron of their desired locations. It can cross a four-by-four-foot work envelope in a quarter of a second, then can do a "move, stop, and drop" of its cargo in one-inch increments at a rate of 25 times per second. But the DotBot Microarray Printer, as it's known, combines the precision of a micro-surgical tool with speeds far faster than those of office printers. Improbable as it sounds, such a machine now exists. Imagine an office printer, with a print head that races across a page at speeds that are a blur to the human eye, placing characters within a millionth of a meter of their desired locations.
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