Robotic labs for high-speed genetic research are on the rise

IN THE basement of Imperial College sits the London DNA Foundry. The word “foundry” calls forth images of liquid metal being poured into moulds—of the early phase of the Industrial Revolution, in other words. This foundry is, however, determinedly modern. Liquid is indeed being moved around and poured. But it is in minuscule quantities, and it is not metal. Instead, it is an aqueous suspension of the genetic codes of life.

帝国理工学院的地下室坐落着伦敦DNA铸造厂。 换句话说，“铸造厂”这个词让人们想起，工业革命早期阶段液态金属倒入模具中的图像。 然而，这个铸造厂确实是现代化的。 液体确实被移动并倾倒。 但它的数量很少，而且不是金属。 相反，它是生命遗传密码的水悬浮液。

The laboratory is an example of a wider movement. Similar biofoundries are being set up around the world, from the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, via Silicon Valley, to the National University of Singapore. All offer ways of centralising the donkey work of genetic-engineering research. Instead of biotechnology companies buying and operating their own laboratories, foundries will do it for them.

该实验室是更广泛运动的一个例子。 类似的生物基地正在世界各地建立，从马萨诸塞州剑桥的布罗德研究所，经硅谷到新加坡国立大学， 所有这些都提供了集中进行基因工程研究的艰苦单调工作的途径。 并非生物技术公司购买和运营他们自己的实验室，而是铸造厂会为他们做。

London DNA Foundry’s operations room is filled with boxy devices, each designed to do one particular operation, such as pipetting, repeatedly and quickly. A robotic arm shuttles small plastic dishes between the machines. Each dish contains up to 1,536 minuscule wells. And in each of those wells sits several microlitres of liquid and a few strands of DNA. Using this arrangement, the foundry can mix, in the precise concentrations required, 150,000 samples of DNA in a morning.

伦敦DNA 铸造厂的手术室内充满了四四方方的设备，每个设备都可以反复快速地进行一项特定操作，例如移液。 机器人手臂在机器之间来回移动小塑料托盘。 每道托盘含多达1,536个小孔。 在每个孔中都有几微升的液体和几条DNA。 使用这种安排，铸造厂可以在需要的精确浓度下，在一个早晨混合150,000个DNA样本。

This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "Gene machines" in Economist.