Instrument Development and Automation Laboratory
The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory’s Instrument Development and Automation Laboratory (IDAL) combines technological expertise with the visions of researchers to rapidly prototype and integrate leading-edge tools for biological, environmental, and computing research. This includes customized technologies as well as automated platforms like the soon to be released Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform (2026) and the expected Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability (2029).
These technologies and resources are available to the scientific community through awarded EMSL user projects. Research applications include the following:
- Rapidly prototype new inventions and enable greater degrees of experimental control through customized electronics and on-demand 3-D printing.
- Design and manufacture—down to nanoscale resolution—experimental tools with lithography, laser engraving, and plasma etching technologies.
- Build custom instruments and integrated platforms from off-the-shelf tools or from individual components.
- Implement automation-friendly workflows onto platforms that include devices like liquid handlers, cell culture incubators, and analytical capabilities (flow cytometry, chromatography, fluorescence, absorbance).
Tips for success
- Develop a clear concept or idea of what you want to create.
- Identify the important technical features of what you want to make, including durability, chemical resistance, and resolution.
- For automated platforms, have a workflow, protocol, or technique functioning on the bench top, and be ready to discuss how to augment it for use with automated handling (pipetting considerations, liquid types, handling steps (SBS/ANSI format), temperature requirements, etc.).
- Connect with the related IRP leader.
Available resources
Engineering design and development
- Custom instrument development
- Automated laboratory platforms
- Three-dimensional printing
- Printed circuit board design
- Microfabrication in a cleanroom
- Microfluidics design and fabrication
- Advanced signal acquisition
- Digital and analog signal processing and analysis
- Remote instrumentation systems
- Custom circuits and instrumentation
- Embedded systems
- Static and RF electric and magnetic field simulation
- Thermal simulation
- Stress–strain simulation
- Applications range in any dimension, for example:
- Extreme environments: high vacuum, high temperature, radiation exposure, cryogen exposure
- Diverse science areas: molecular biology, materials science, chemistry
- Micro- to macroscale volumes, distances, timescales
Software development
- User interface development
- Data visualization and analysis
- Image processing and analysis
- Automation and remote operation software
- Data acquisition systems
Laboratory and equipment
- Fully equipped electronics development laboratory
- Automated platforms include: liquid handlers (1, 8, 96 channels; nanoliters up to 5 mL), incubators/shakers, flow cytometry, HPLC, plate reader
- Equipment checkout (oscilloscopes, power supplies, etc.)
- Electronic components (resistors, fuses, etc.)
- Power and hand tools
- 3-D printers (filament, resin)
- Laser engraver
- Plasma etcher
- Mask aligner
- Lithography system
- Sputtering
Tips for success
- Develop a clear concept or idea of what you want to create
- Identify the important technical features of what you want to make, including durability, chemical resistance, and resolution
- As you’re developing your ideas, connect with the applicable IRP lead in your area of research
Contacts
Lab automation platforms: Todd Edwards
Clean room (microfluidics): Hardeep Mehta
Makerspace and prototyping: Adam Ryan