Year: 2021-22

Company: Analytik Jena

Liaison(s): Sean Gallagher

Our TMP client company, Analytik Jena US LLC, is located in Upland, California and is a subsidiary of Endress + Hauser, a Swiss-based globally operating process and laboratory instrumentation and automation supplier. Analytik Jena continually strives to develop state of the art products to further science and technology. Analytik Jena operates in designing and manufacturing analytical instruments. These products include: Elements Analysis, Molecular Spectroscopy, Liquid Handling & Automation, and Sample Prep Consumables. The Upland Analytik Jena office we worked with specializes in designing, manufacturing, and servicing gel electrophoresis imaging systems. Their gel imaging products are used for Western Blot Analysis, Colony Counting, Gel Electrophoresis, and Chemiluminescence. The products include automation for optical controls, filter selection, epillumination (lighting from around the sample) and transillumination (lighting from underneath the sample) lighting selection, and built-in image analysis software, VisionWorks, to streamline the research process. Existing imaging systems, with all the necessary components, are usually complex and very expensive, and because of this are more often purchased by research companies with sizable funding. As such, there is a problem of accessibility of these instruments to the educational and personal market sectors. This project created a new compact gel imaging system leveraging a cloud-based component. The intention of this project was to allow the system to become a cost-effective option for high schools, college research institutions, and research labs with limited funds.