ROBOCOV: An affordable open-source robotic platform for COVID-19 testing by RT-qPCR

Villanueva-Cañas, José Luis; Gonzalez-Roca, Eva; Unanue, Aitor Gastaminza; Titos, Esther; Yoldi, Miguel Julián Martínez; Gómez, Andrea Vergara; Butillé, Joan Antón Puig

Current global pandemic due to the SARS-CoV-2 has struggled and pushed the limits of global health systems. Supply chain disruptions and scarce availability of commercial laboratory reagents have motivated worldwide actors to search for alternative workflows to cope with the demand. We have used the OT-2 open-source liquid-handling robots (Opentrons, NY), RNA extraction and RT-qPCR reagents to set-up a reproducible workflow for RT-qPCR SARS-CoV-2 testing. We developed a framework with a template and several functions and classes that allow the creation of customized RT-qPCR automated circuits. As a proof of concept, we provide data obtained by a fully-functional tested code using the MagMax Pathogen RNA/DNA kit and the MagMax Viral/Pathogen II kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, MA) on the Kingfisher Flex instrument (Thermo Fisher Scientific, MA). With these codes available is easy to create new stations or circuits from scratch, adapt existing ones to changes in the experimental protocol, or perform fine adjustments to fulfil special needs. The affordability of this platform makes it accessible for most laboratories and hospitals with a bioinformatician, democratising automated SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing and increasing, temporarily or not, the capacity of carrying out tests. It also confers flexibility, as this platform is not dependant on any particular commercial kit and can be quickly adapted to protocol changes or other special needs.