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University of Miami med school gets new genetics robotOct 17, 2011 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- When he was chairman of the department of medicine at Duke University in North Carolina, Dr. Pascal Goldschmidt had a recurring wish. "I really, really, really, really wanted a robot," said Goldschmidt, now dean of the University of Miami's medical school. "Now we have one. We're the real deal." The 9,000 pound robot, the size and shape of a small cargo container with a flat screen monitor tacked to its side, is not as cute as Star Wars' R2D2. And it goes by a clunky name: The Brooks Life Science Systems A3+ SmaRTStore. But it can do things Artoo can't. It can store 500,000 tiny vials stamped with bar codes and filled with DNA samples from genetic studies, sort them, and within minutes of a button's push pluck out and deliver, say, those 79 samples gathered in Tennessee in 2007. Purpose: to compare the DNA of people with, say, Alzheimer's disease, to the DNA of healthy people to find the genetic cause of the debilitating malady. The machine was unveiled Monday in the Biorepository Lab of UM's John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics, its $1-million cost paid by the Hussman Foundation. "This puts us at the forefront of genetic science and the study of multiple sclerosis, ALS, Alzheimer's and many other diseases," said Dr. Margaret Pericak-Vance, the institute's director. The speedy storing-and-sorting robot joins three DNA analysis units called "Illumina Platforms," costing $750,000 each, to keep track of blood and saliva samples from tests seeking the genetic basis -- and maybe someday the cure -- for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, autism, Parkinson's Disease, multiple sclerosis and dozens of others. "We're really excited," said Dr. Jacob McCauley, director of the Biorepository Core at the Hussman Institute. The project should help elevate UM into the ranks of genomic research centers at universities such as MIT, Harvard, Vanderbilt, the University of Washington and others, he said. With its DNA storage capacity quadrupled, the Hussman institute will be able to play a central role in international collaborative research studies with other universities, such as the International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium, as well as 70 other ongoing studies. The machine, dubbed "Jake's robot" because staffers joke that McCauley is the only one who knows how to use it, should serve Hussman's rapidly expanding needs for up to 10 years, Goldschmidt said. "Then it's going to need a husband." ___ (c)2011 The Miami Herald Visit The Miami Herald at www.miamiherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |