Automation of New Approach Methodologies

Description

Through collaboration with Ombion specialists, you will explore the fundamentals and advanced applications of laboratory automation in modern biomedical research. By learning to design and run reliable automated workflows for in vitro methods, you will discover how to enhance reproducibility, increase throughput, and drive the scalability of animal-free New Approach Methodologies (NAMs).

Course Overview

During this intensive 3 days programme in Utrecht, you will explore the fundamentals and advanced applications of laboratory automation in modern biomedical research and animal-free technology development. The course combines lectures, hands-on laboratory sessions, demonstrations, and site visits offering a comprehensive and practice-oriented introduction to automated systems, workflow integration, and protocol optimization for high-throughput biomedical assays. Working alongside Ombion specialists and experts, you will learn the basics of how to design, implement, and optimize automated laboratory workflows that enhance reproducibility, increase throughput, and reduce manual handling in animal-free biomedical translation projects.

What You Will Learn

During this course, participants will:

• Gain understanding and apply the principles of laboratory automation.
• Understand how to design assays correctly to allow for a seamless transition to automation.
• Explore how to optimize protocols focused on automation to minimize reagent and consumable usage.
• Engage directly through collaboration with Ombion specialists on automated laboratory workflows.
• Acquire hands-on technical skills to improve the quality of in vitro research.

Hands-On & Interactive Components

• Hands-on sessions: protocol design and execution on different liquid handlers, practice with a robotic arm.

• Demonstrations: robotic system integrations, high-throughput screening setups.

• Expert dialogues: regulatory science, model standardization, and animal-free innovation.

Why to attend  

• For Academic Researchers: Learn the engineering principles and standardization techniques required to make your in vitro models reproducible, scalable, and ready for translational impact.
• For Industry Professionals: Gain hands-on experience in adapting complex New Approach Methodologies to automated workflows, optimizing assay design, and exploring the latest in instrument integration to streamline your R&D pipelines

Target audience

This course is designed for life-science(s) professionals who have completed a BSc. or MSc. in a relevant life science field and are fluent in English.

It is ideal for participants with a background or interest in:

• Laboratory automation and medium- to high-throughput screening.
• Workflow design, instrument integration, and quality control.
• Standardization, reproducibility, and scalability of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs).
• Implementing or transitioning towards animal-free, human-relevant in vitro modelling.

Whether you are an academic researcher aiming to overcome poor reproducibility in methodology, or an industry professional seeking to use models for testing of pharmaceutical substances, this course provides a solid scientific foundation, hands-on technical skills, and strategic insight to contribute to the rapidly advancing field of human-relevant in vitro modelling

Aim of the course

Laboratory automation has the potential of improving the reproducibility of experiments, as well as minimizing reagent and consumable usage. Especially in the field of NAMs, where standardization is often complex and experiments difficult to reproduce, laboratory automation is a critical component in the drug development pipeline. Yet, despite these challenges, laboratory automation is not frequently taught at universities as part of the curriculum, making it complicated for industrial - and academic institutes to find qualified personnel. Ombion is organizing this automation of NAMs summer school to fill this gap of knowledge, giving participants access to a solid scientific foundation, hands-on technical skills, and strategic insight in the field of laboratory automation—preparing participants to contribute to the rapidly advancing field of human-relevant in vitro modelling.

Study load

3 full days.