Calico Automation
Accelerating scientific discovery at Calico Life Sciences with automation.
Here are some of the many projects that we work on. We try to be open source where possible:
ANUBIS
ANUBIS Automated Tube Weighing System
This repository contains the software for automating the process of vial weighing using the ANUBIS robotic arm platform at Calico. The goal of this project is to increase throughput, improve accuracy, and reduce the manual effort involved in weighing large numbers of vials (e.g., in Micronic racks) for various experimental assays.
PICCOLO
Piccolo Ultra-High Throughput Screening Platform
Piccolo is a ultra-high throughput screening platform that is capable of processing millions of microfluidic droplets per hour. This repo contains the fullstack control software for the custom detection and sorting instrument. It’s built from in-house designed optics, the Red Pitaya FPGA card, and bespoke microfluidic modules.
SALDA
A simple automatic liquid dispense arrangement (SALDA) for timelapse microscopy
A recurring challenge in timelapse microscopy is adding a liquid perturbation to a sample during imaging and observing the response (e.g. adding a drug). This is typically done by a person hovering over the microscope with a pipette and trying to gently add liquid in a precise location. This method is hard to execute and time accurately, upsets environmental control (e.g. temperature and CO2) and often results in vibrations that disturb or destroy the imaging. Here we present a simple automatic liquid dispense arrangement (SALDA) for timelapse microscopy that is readily deployed and cost effective. We use a programmatically controlled syringe pump with a refined fluidic and mechanical arrangement to dispense liquid directly into multiwell samples that are being imaged by a microscope. The arrangement enables accurate and repeatable timing, eliminates environmental disturbance and vibrations from the user, and facilitates perturbing and imaging of different wells. The fluidic system is readily cleaned or replaced and can dispense volumes as low as 10µl with high trueness (RB = 0.32%) and precision (CV = 1.63%). Here we show the arrangement with a particular stage top incubator and microscope platform, but the setup is easily modified and applied to any system that can accommodate a small diameter tube (~2 mm).
