System Integration and Throughput

Unless laboratory staff are competent with any new technology its introduction into the laboratory will present difficulties. Many bottlenecks need to be removed if maximum benefits are to be obtained from the technology, and efficient data handling and experimental design are essential. 

The overall throughput, as within any chain or cycle, is constrained by the slowest steps and it is essential to focus on and eliminate these successively. Overcoming key bottlenecks to enable a fully automated system requires considerable work on the chemical development of the various steps that are often done offline, such as isolation and washing. This can be overcome partially by a systematic approach in the design stage where the conditions for each of the reaction stages must be defined such that yields are optimised across the range of substrates represented by the library. 

Computation plays a critical role in three areas  

Using the techniques of Statistical Experimental Design, at the design stage has become key, whether this is for compound libraries or for the parameters in the process development of a product A large and complex compound library generates a great 

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