LABORATORY AUTOMATION & LIFE SCIENCE ROBOTICS

As a robotics expert with over 11 years of experience, I traveled the world (US, Brazil, Switzerland, and Australia) supporting key customer accounts totaling more than $8 million in sales. I led the technical aspects of Hamilton Reno’s EasyPunch, IDStarlet, and AutoLys platforms. I was the “technical bridge” between Reno’s sales execution and R&D in Switzerland.

I was involved in the development of over 24 device drivers, integrating 3rd party devices such as: plate readers, incubators, shakers, flow cyclometers, tensionometers, thermocyclers, and more. Furthremore, I’ve caught software bugs that would have cost the company millions of dollars and it’s reputation.

As the only person on the team with an advanced degree in computer science, I was often on a plane with little notice. Asked to solve challenging technical issues in the field, I developed detailed status reports to contribute to the team knowledgebase and teach others.

I am certified in many lab automation platforms, including Hamilton, Tecan, and Dynex. I have intimate knowledge of the industry and the capabilities of each platform.

Below are some pictures of my projects:

Sydney, Australia

DNA Forensics

DEPT. OF FORENSIC AND ANALYTICAL SCIENCES

1001 Weeroona Road
Lidcombe, Australia

Lead role in the development of a forensic cell lysis robot used by the New South Whales police department. The system was brought online in late 2013. Crime scene investigation samples from the state of New South Whales (an area 30% bigger than Texas) are sent to the lab to be processed and run on the robot I programmed. Wrote over 10k+ lines of code, developed a GUI for worklist management, and used best practices to make system "bomb-proof." Performed installation, development, and training on-site.

Brasilia, Brazil

DNA Forensics

Key contributor of a forensic DNA robot for the federal police of Brazil (the equivalent of the FBI in America). System was designed to extract DNA from a plethora of samples including blood, saliva, cigarette butts, tissue, and bone.

Went onsite to perform product demonstration and developed a new driver for the Meso Scale reader using an n-tier architecture to allow for flexibility in the event of failures.

Hannover, New Jersey

Cancer - Drug Discovery

NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICALS

One Health Plaza
Hannover, NJ 07936

Developed GUI, database back end, and toolset for a high-throughput ELISA system consisting of 10 robotic-enabled devices utilizing two liquid handlers. The final product is being used to research cancer markers.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Genetics

MYRIAD GENETICS

320 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108

Onsite troubleshooting of the Eppendorf thermocycler driver. Rewrote driver to handle parallel tasks and concurrent commands. Slowly rebuilt the customer's confidence in the product through extensive testing, site visits, and demos.

NOTE: due to the confidential nature of work at Myriad, no images of the actual project are shown.

Las Vegas, Nevada

DNA Forensics

Forensic laboratory involving challenging (degraded) samples and time pressure. Programmed the robot to automate ~600 samples a month, using Promega PowerPlex 18D chemistry and GE Whatman collectors (saliva samples). Customized workflow to user specifications and assisted with validation testing.