Robotic Lab Offers Now CRISPR Gene Editing

The robotic laboratory Transcriptic will add CRISPR gene editing to its services. Apart from the wet lab part of the job, Transcriptic offers CRISPR library design algorithms thanks to a collaboration with the London based software company Desktop Genetics.


Workcell. Credit: Transcriptic.

Transcriptic is a Californian company that offers a fully automated cell and molecular biology laboratory. Research and industry labs can outsource the most tedious, error-prone and time-consuming tasks to Transcriptic’s robotic laboratory, specifying the desired experimental design through the company´s website. When the operations are finished, the results are received via e-mail. Transcriptic has a list of available devices that users can include in their protocols, including several liquid handling robots, plate readers, PCR machines and colony pickers. Users can even design their own protocols, which Transcriptic staff will transform into code for a Workcell, a custom-built, 20 x 10 feet (6 x 3 m) robotic lab.

Seamless CRISPR gene editing

Now, Transcriptic has added CRISPR to the list of services available. Thanks to an agreement with the software company Desktop Genetics (DTG), users will be able to use DTG’s algorithms to design their CRISPR libraries. Based oh the information entered in the website, high-throughput cloning of CRISPR constructs will be performed in a Transcriptic Workcell.

An elevated production of cell lines is not currently feasible for most labs, due to the enormous costs of setting up a high-throughput genome editing facility and the elevated expenses of the CRISPR design process.Transcriptic and Desktop Genetics affirm that their collaboration will allow users to increase the number of cell lines they produce by several orders of magnitude.

Source: Transcriptic