The new robotic cloud laboratory is equipped with more than 100 instruments and storage for more than five million compounds

800px-Eli_Lilly_Corporate_Center,_Indianapolis,_Indiana,_USA

Eli Lilly and Company corporate centre in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Credit: Momoneymoproblemz/Wikipedia.)

Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) in partnership with Strateos, a SaaS-based biotechnology company, has opened a new robotic cloud laboratory in San Diego, California, to advance the drug discovery process.

Lilly said that it has designed the new Life Sciences Studio lab as part of the $90m investment, made in 2017 to expand its research footprint in San Diego.

Lilly Molecule Innovation Hub senior vice president Bill Heath said: “Lilly is committed to finding new ways to accelerate the drug discovery process and this collaboration with Strateos further enables this mission.

“Through the studio lab, emerging drug discovery companies can gain access to a variety of tools and throughput usually reserved for much larger organizations. Lilly and Strateos are excited to expand access of this technology to others in the scientific community.”

The new robotic laboratory is located within the Lilly Biotechnology Centre in San Diego

The company said that the new robotic cloud laboratory physically and virtually integrates several areas of the drug discovery processes, including design, synthesis, purification, analysis, sample management, and hypothesis testing, into a fully automated platform.

In addition, Hamilton, The Morse Group, Zinsser, Chemspeed, Hamilton Storage, Labcyte, Biosero, Tek-Matic, Accelerated Machine Design and Engineering, and Virscidian, will serve the laboratory as technology partners.

Lilly said that the robotic cloud laboratory is equipped with more than 100 instruments and storage for more than 5million compounds, enabling drug discovery teams to synthesize, test, and optimise compounds, using an automated drug discovery platform.

Under the collaboration, Strateos will leverage its robotic cloud platform to enable the other drug discovery companies and research scientists to access the remote-controlled robotic cloud lab, through its secure cloud-based platform.

Strateos CEO Mark Fischer-Colbrie said: “Lilly and Strateos have long histories of leadership in lab automation and we are pleased to combine our collective expertise to expanded access to this facility via the Strateos Robotic Cloud Lab platform. This laboratory represents the next evolution in drug discovery as we close the loop of synthesis and testing.

“Through this collaboration, we are building on our current on-demand biology capabilities and integrating automated chemical synthesis to enable a complete, rapid design-make-test-analyze cycle. This partnership furthers our mission to combine innovation, integration, and industrialization to drive information essential to accelerating discovery.”