A Blueprint For a Cost-Efficient IoT-Enabled Biotech Lab

Abstract

Implementations of IoT and automation have already started making their way into the biotechnology industry but are still restricted to highly funded pharmaceutical companies and laboratories. Universities across the world have been leading innovators in this field and yet a large proportion of its labs are primitive in design. The reason for this is due to the investment requirements to execute such upgrades, not to mention the required training for its proper use. The aim of this article is to provide basic IoT solutions for biotechnology labs at a university level. Problems of data entry, reading fluctuations, administration of equipment, pipeline leakages have also been addressed while keeping in mind the financial constraints of university labs. Applications of automation have not been developed in this solution to preserve experimental creativity among graduates. These solutions aim to minimize human error thus solving the problem of reproducibility of results which is highly prevalent in this industry. Current developments in this field along with the future prospects have also been discussed.