Some might remember the early years of marker analysis at KWS: In the 1990s, single-channel pipettes were enough to handle a handful of samples. However, more automation became necessary as the processes evolved. Single-channel pipettes became 8-channel pipettes, and, gradually, pipetting robots. The growing degree of automation significantly improved the speed of laboratory processes.

At KWS, lab automation is particularly crucial at Marker Service, who offer centralized analyses for all our crops. “We are talking about several million incoming samples every year, a figure that has more than doubled every five years recently,” states Cornelia Glass, Group Lead at Marker Service.

The first step in marker analysis is DNA extraction, a process where the plant’s DNA is separated from cellular components and purified for further analyses. Extraction typically forms the analysis bottleneck; its capacity determines the delivery of all further analyses. To solve these types of problems, High Throughput Services hosts a Technical System Engineering team, led by Sebastian Steiner, molecular biologist by background.

“With the high demand of throughput and cost reduction required in genotyping processes, we are thinking beyond single process automation. Solutions available in the market are very costly, and designed toward human diagnostics or research purposes,” explains Sebastian Steiner. “We are moving on to an industrial approach of lab automation – with production lines and 24/7 operation of a molecular biology lab.”

Less dependent on external service providers

“But we also need the team to develop our own customized solutions,” adds Markus Niessen, Senior Group Lead at Marker Service. Worth mentioning here is the development and production of own laboratory consumables. “Especially after the experiences during the coronavirus lockdowns and the resulting interrupted supply chains, we want to be less dependent on external suppliers and are glad to have built up our own capacities here and to produce our consumables locally ourselves.”

“Our group is independent, but at the same time, well connected,” summarizes Patrick Henke, the electrical engineer in the group who has his focus on machine design and software development. The team works closely with internal customers: Marker Service, Cell Service, Molecular Breeding teams and many other groups. Projects are always initiated with the definition of an opportunity for improvement, after which the team explores existing solutions or partners in the market; sometimes, a good customizable option is found this way. If not, the specifications are drafted, and the design process starts. “It really helps to be so close to our internal customers,” states Patrick Henke. “We already know their needs quite well, and we can meet up with them regularly during the process, making sure that we are seeing things the same way. At the end, we support them in taking the new device into use.”

“Working like this, we can deliver exactly what is needed,” says Joachim Strauß, mechanical engineer of the Technical System Engineering group. “We used to need to contact suppliers for very specific requests that were sometimes hard to realize – having our own team gives us the flexibility to get things done, as well as saving a lot of money.”

Beyond automation

But there are big differences in requirements between the different customers. Sebastian Steiner takes an example of the “KWS scissors”– special, customized type of scissors developed for the Cell Service that can cut, hold, and place plant samples in a sterile environment without dropping them as normal scissors would. In addition, the team developed manual tools for the sampling of leaves and seeds.

“Working with plants and living material, there will always be processes that simply cannot be automated,” says Joachim Strauß. “But where problems are identified, we can help develop a solution.”