Robots Streamline Research at the Natural History Museum
London, UK – A new wave of automation is hitting scientific research, and the Natural History Museum in London is at the forefront. The latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast features an interview with Yuen Ting Chan, who is leading the charge to bring robotics to the museum’s molecular laboratories, accelerating research on its vast collection of specimens.
For nearly two decades, Chan has specialized in translating and optimizing laboratory protocols, initially in DNA forensics and later expanding into the biomedical field. Her expertise lies in converting complex scientific procedures into automated scripts for liquid handling robots. This work is notably crucial for institutions like the Natural History Museum, which often deal with projects involving large sample numbers – a task traditionally demanding important time and resources. By automating these processes,researchers can dedicate more effort to analysis and finding.
Chan’s role at the museum focuses on implementing automation to handle the molecular work, opening up opportunities for researchers to tackle projects with extensive datasets drawn from the museum’s diverse specimen collections. She has over 12 years of experience bringing automation to molecular laboratories.
The Robot Talk podcast, a weekly exploration of robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous machines, provides a platform for discussing these advancements and their impact on various fields. The episode featuring Chan is available for streaming and download via Libsyn.
