Automation protocols development

PfefFer, de Vries and coworkers developed the use of ruthenacycles, based on chiral aromatic amines as enantioselective transfer hydrogenation catalysts. These authors were able to develop an automated protocol to produce these catalysts by reacting ligand and metal precursor in the presence of base, KPFS in CH3CN. After removal of the solvent, isopropanol was added followed by the substrate, acetophenone, and KOtBu. In this way, a library of eight chiral... 

It seems pretty clear that easy-to-use and web-interfaced, automated protocols will be more and more useful in the near future. The possibility of combining different tools at different steps of the integrated process makes it inevitable that more of them will be developed and open to the pubhc. What is good about this kind of approach is that... 

In this section, we present the development of an automated protocol for prostate tissue histology [164] from infrared spectroscopic imaging data as an example of the techniques described (Fig. 8.11). The data is three dimensional with x-y—axes representing the image plane and the 2-axis representing the spectral dimension. After data acquisition, two important pre-processing steps, namely baseline correction and de-noising, are performed. Since the entire data set is derived from human tissue samples, the spectra have similar characteristics and, therefore, a manually chosen set of pre-defined wave number could be used as the reference points for baseline correction. It is... 

One of the critical steps in qualitative and quantitative analysis is the sample preparation procedure. Sample preparation step can affect specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, precision, and throughput of a bioanalytical procedure. In addition to development and optimization of the chemistry involved in sample processing, the use of semiautomated or fully automated protocols has been... 

If protocol development is rate determining, the effectiveness of ADME experimental assays depends very much on how the early exemplars are synthesized. In theory, the most effective method would be to obtain a well-spaced subset of the library in an experimental design sense. A traditional, noncombinatorial, synthesis would accomplish this but would not fit in well with a combinatorial optimization process. A possible means around this problem is to institute some type of early automated clean-up of combinatorial exemplars from partially optimized reaction schemes. This is not a tidy solution because the most efficient process would be an automated clean-up on the entire library after the optimization process was complete. 

An automated protocol for sequentially analysing MQ spectra to obtain reasonable estimates of spectral parameters then analysing IQ spectra has been developed.61 The analysis of MQNMR spectra has frequently been used to provide good initial estimates of parameters to permit the analysis of IQ spectra where these are well resolved. 

A good starting point for LC-MS method development is a 50 x 2.1 mm Xterra MS Qg column (3.5 pm) injection volume 5 pL mobile phase H2O/ACN 90/10 to 10/90 v/v 250pLrnin 1 gradient 50 °C. Generic protocols and smart automated (or zero) method development is coming within reach [559]. 

Communication plays an increasingly important role. Several technical possibilities of common protocols for such communication networks are under investigation, and some common standards are being developed, such as the EIB, the European Installation Bus system. Also communication access via power lines (PLC Powerline Communication, at frequencies in the 10 to 150 kHz band) may be introduced, where house automation services and energy-related services (like remote access to the current counters) may be linked. 

As more and more enzymes become available, it is essential to develop an automated microtiter-based screening protocol, which allows the rapid identification of desired biocatalyst hits from a family of enzyme libraries using a minimal amount of substrates and enzymes. As a result of comprehensive screening, the success rate can be significantly improved and many unique enzymes or conditions can be identified, which were previously largely ignored in the synthetic community (Yazbeck et al. 2003). 

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