Barcelona hospital clinic uses Opentrons to scale up coronavirus testing

The Biomedical Diagnostics Center of the Barcelona Hospital Clinic uses Opentrons OT-2 robots to process 2,400 coronavirus test samples every day.

Barcelona Hospital Clinic’s Center for Biomedical Diagnostics (CBD) has introduced a newOpentrons OT-2 automated pipetting platform for high-volume PCR testing. The equipment is currently in the calibration phase and will be put into use in the coming days. The introduction of OT-2 was made possible thanks to the initiative of Covichain Robotics and the joint efforts of various private and public entities.

An OT-2 processing 2400 samples

OT-2 was introduced to increase sample volumes for coronavirus testing and address bottlenecks in sample processing. Opentrons robots are part of the latest technology, with open source capabilities that can be adapted to each hospital's established protocols.

The robot, called Opentrons OT-2, can perform PCR sample testing at scale to provide correct diagnosis to the largest number of patients affected by COVID-19. We can process up to 2400 samples per day in a fast, efficient and reliable manner.

A collection of private and public entities

One proposal is one of 10 projects developed since March 13 by a group of professionals, called Covichain Robots, with support from the Alastria Alliance and the Covid Warriors Association.

The employees and management teams of MERLIN Properties and Manpower Group provided the necessary funding for the project, giving the team the opportunity to purchase robots and hire professional engineers. The project is supported by companies such as Inditex, Correos, Apple, IKEA, LLYC and Telefónica, which provide the logistics and equipment and infrastructure needed to launch the robots.

The Ministries of Finance, Interior, Foreign Affairs, EU Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Science and Innovation also join the project to contribute to its management.