Major Collaboration in Laboratory Automation Technology

Important Collaboration in Laboratory Automation Technology

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, announced a collaboration agreement with Hamilton, a leading global laboratory automation technology manufacturer, to develop automated applications together with robotics-compatible reagent kits aimed at providing greater standardization and fewer human errors when conducting large-scale single-cell multiomics experiments.

As a result of the collaboration, BD aims to offer a BD Rhapsody™ Single Cell Analysis Library Preparation Reagent Kits package that can be performed on the Hamilton Microlab® NGS STAR™ robotic liquid handling platform. This combination will automate steps such as pipetting and thermal cycling to produce DNA samples or "libraries" ready for genetic sequencing. In single-cell multiomics experiments, creating fragmented genetic information libraries that can be read by sequencing devices is an important first step before next-generation sequencing (NGS) is performed and information is collected from cells. NGS library preparation is a time-consuming process historically involving manual steps that can lead to inconsistent results and reduced data quality. Steve Conly, Global President of BD Biosciences, said: "Multiomics-based analyses are increasingly being used by single-cell researchers in oncology, immunology and other disciplines to investigate various information layers within a single cell and gain deeper insight into health and disease, therefore obtaining reproducible results is of critical importance." "By integrating Hamilton's robotic technology into our end-to-end single-cell multiomics solutions portfolio, BD continues to benefit from automation, enabling more researchers—whether academic, biopharmaceutical, or contract research organizations—to be equipped to confidently perform larger-scale single-cell multiomics studies." Matt Hamilton, Vice President CEO of Hamilton, added: "Through this collaboration with BD, we aim to provide researchers with a comprehensive solution that reduces the potential for bias and enables laboratories to obtain results more reliably with greater efficiency. As more researchers rapidly adopt single-cell multiomics approaches, which represent an important and evolving methodology, we believe that having automated solutions for high-throughput experiments will serve to accelerate their potentially life-changing discoveries." The BD Rhapsody™ Single Cell Analysis Library Preparation Reagent Kits and Hamilton Microlab® NGS STAR™ applications will be developed and launched in phases starting from 2024. Source