How A Centralized Automation Facility Scaled Scientific Operations with CellarioOS
An Anonymous Case Study on Workflow Orchestration at Scale
In the world of drug discovery, efficiency and consistency are everything. One centralized automation facility at a major biopharma site has reimagined how assay development and screening are managed across the organization, transforming from a fragmented, homegrown system to a streamlined, site-wide orchestration platform powered by CellarioOS.
A Centralized Automation Hub for the Enterprise
This internal automation facility serves dozens of labs across the organization. Scientists from any department can engage with the facility to receive data of their samples or get new assays developed, all without needing deep automation expertise themselves. The facility is built to scale: development teams automate science by designing and testing new automation protocols, while an operations team runs and maintains daily throughput on shared instrumentation.
The Power of CellarioOS
Before CellarioOS, the team relied on custom-built internal software to handle scheduling and requests, an approach that was inflexible and slow. Now, CellarioOS acts as the connective tissue enabling seamless handoffs between scientists requesting services and the automated lab fulfilling them.
For the operations team, the change has been significant:
- Modern user experience replaces outdated interfaces
- Clear daily schedules ensure efficient resource allocation
- Streamlined, automated handling of data in and out of the lab, minimizing errors
- Centralized protocol management links development and execution seamlessly
From Protocol Development to Scientific Execution
When a scientist wants to get their samples tested, they simply log into the system, select their request type, define the samples to be submitted, and its parameter values.
For novel request types, users can schedule time with the development team to design and test a new assay. During this period, they collaborate to automate the science by building and refining the protocol in CellarioScheduler. Once validated, the assay is handed off to the operations group for routine execution
Here’s how the process works:
- Protocol sync: Protocols are maintained by the development team within CellarioScheduler instances that operate the automation systems. When connected to CellarioOS, any changes to the protocols are automatically propagated.
- Request creation: In CellarioOS, the development team creates a new request type for the assay of interest by selecting one or more protocols, mapping the required parameters, and adding request-specific metadata inputs such as experiment ID or billing codes.
- Instrument-agnostic scheduling: In CellarioOS, scientists schedule requests for assays without selecting specific instruments; operations later assign work to available resources using a built-in calendar view.
- Execution & data review: CellarioSchedulers pull informations for upcoming protocol runs from CellarioOS. Ops triggers the execution, inspects the raw data, and manually uploads output files to the request.
- Automated notifications: Scientists receive an email alert when their request has been fulfilled and data is ready for downstream processing.
Standardized Data. Smarter Decisions.
Previously, the quality and format of results varied depending on the operator. With CellarioOS, results are consistent and reproducible. Every request is logged, tracked, and linked to specific billing codes, enabling the organization to analyze utilization by team, application, and instrument type. This data provides insights into demand trends, helping improve service offerings and guiding future purchasing and resource allocation decisions.
Enabling Scalable and Adaptable Science
By replacing legacy homebrew tools with CellarioOS, the facility now delivers scalable, efficient, and traceable science across the enterprise. From requesting to fulfillment, this centralized approach empowers every lab to get samples assayed on demand while giving the operations team the control they need to deliver to promise. To meet future needs, the development team leverages the Cellario Platform to automate science, developing novel assays and working closely with the labs and operations team to make them easily requestable.