Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jim Danneskiold, (505) 667-1640/[email protected]
LOS ALAMOS, UCLA, ARCHITECT DESIGN VIRTUAL LABORATORIES
LOS ALAMOS, N. M., May 6, 1997 --- One day soon, scientists will be able to ship a threatening virus or potential miracle drug found in a remote jungle to an automated laboratory, then use global computer networks to design and run experiments that will yield analytical results within days.
This vision of 21st century laboratories already has been designed by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory; University of California, Los Angeles; and the San Francisco architectural firm of Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz. Such labs could let hundreds of researchers collaborate on the thousands of experiments needed to develop vaccines for infectious diseases such as AIDS before epidemics devastate huge populations.
"Most vaccine research is a painfully slow, trial-and-error process," explained Tony Beugelsdijk of Los Alamos. "It's notoriously difficult to find the common elements in various mutations, especially when dozens of new mutations of diseases like AIDS appear so rapidly."
Beugelsdijk, Dr. Scott Layne of UCLA's School of Public Health and Victor DeSantis, director of laboratory facilities at Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz, think the answer is fully automated, integrated and flexible laboratories that can speed the quest for vaccines --- and other research results --- by a hundred- to a thousandfold.
The laboratory designed by the trio would be a collection of standardized robotic modules that researchers can mix and match to customize sample preparation, analysis and data interpretation. As experimental needs change, scientists can quickly reconfigure the modules to make new instruments.
"In today's global economy, each one of us is no more than an airline trip away from the next outbreak that potentially could cripple our society," Beugelsdijk said. "Infectious diseases are definitely outrunning our ability apply our scientific tools to them."
Layne added, "Our concept blends basic science, automation and robotics, and smart laboratory architecture into an inevitable new weapon in our disease-fighting arsenal, one that allows us to conduct a massive variety and volume of research simultaneously, with faster results and easier collaboration."
Researchers at Los Alamos and other Department of Energy national laboratories over the past five years have developed automated laboratory modules and the process control software needed to run them. Now Beugelsdijk and his colleagues are working on a generalized laboratory interface, Internet-savvy software tools that give researchers at remote locations the ability to design and control specialized experiments at automated labs.
"An environmental field worker might find a suspected pollutant. The worker could log onto a lab continents away through the Internet and get the codes needed to design an analysis, along with shipping labels and safe shipping instructions," Beugelsdijk explained. "When the sample arrives at the lab, the bar codes on the package tell the control software which modules need to do what, and the worker can log on to get the analysis results the next day, before the pollutant can spread."
Robotic systems have been used in laboratories for years but have lacked the flexibility needed for adaptable, modular experimental work. The widespread acceptance of the Internet as the primary medium of information exchange and recent developments in hardware and software engineering now make it possible to coordinate science over computer networks.
"Our goal is not just to manipulate bits over the Internet, but actual matter," Beugelsdijk said.
DeSantis added, "The virtual laboratory never grows obsolete. The walls can be broken down, new technologies can be adapted and the entire laboratory can be reconfigured quickly."
Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.
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