The stage is almost set, waiting for the actors

After long period of very slow developments, the last two days saw frenetic activity. I am away on a trip to Edinburgh (to attend the International Conference on Systems Biology), and so had to hear about the developments by remote control. All the images here were taken by Assaf, serving as my remote eyes.

Yesterday bright and early (before anyone showed up to work) the nice people from PVPlast came in and start installing the work-benches for the robotic room. The design was non-trivial, but they delivered it perfectly. By 2pm they finished and left.

Today, we had the electricity contractors come in to finish the electricity installation, as there is a non-trivial amount of electric/communication outlets that are mounted on the workbenches. 

Few pictures of the work as it progressed today.

The table with the hole is going to hold the robotic-arm-on-a-rail. (The hole is for throwing out used plates.) The table next to it is the "heavy" table for the microscope. This table is not attached to any of the others to avoid vibrations. The bench next to wall is going to hold the microscope monitors and control boxes.

Here we see the tables where the liquid handling robot will sit and the FACS. The table that run in angle to them is the robotic arm table, and in the foreground we see the corner of the microscope table. The clean hood is sitting over the liquid handling table and the end of the robotic arm table, and will enclose this area with super-clean air. The long hole between the two tables will serve for cables. In the background you can see the workbench that will serve for sample preparation, and might also hold some of the equipment monitors. Here is another view of this bench and the clean hood.

Since there many devices will sit on these tables we needed to supply them with electricity and communications. Thus, there is an electricity panel below the robotic table (all along its length).

These cable come from connection boxes along the wall. Thus, there is another panel between the long arm table and the robotic table.

From there the cables go down below the microscope table and all the way to the wall. From the side this look like this.

At the other end of the microscope table the cables come from the rack into another panel. The important part of this construction is that the rack itself is "floating" below the microscope table without actually touching it (so not pass any vibrations).

On the wall the cables are distributed to the various connection boxes (each one housing cables fed from the main electricity and communication boards.

While they were here, the electricians also installed the benchtop lights that we have been waiting for for a long time. Let there be light!

Clean Tent

One of the main worries regarding the robotic setup is contamination from the environment. Since the robot works with media and open plates, such contamination can ruin many experiments. We started by thinking of housing the robot in a clean room. This however was very expensive and would require harsh operating conditions. The solution we came up with is to have the robotic room over-pressurized, so that dust and contaminants are pushed out. In addition, the robot parts that involve sterile work will be housed inside a "clean tent".

Today the tent arrived, in pieces.

The technicians quickly assembled the heavy aluminum framework (which was interesting to watch).

Then they loaded on top of it the filter units. 

Each unit filters air through a series of filters and pushes it downwards. As a result the insides of the tent are continually "washed" by very clean air and kept clean. To close off the relevant volume, the tent has plastic sheet flaps that allow access inside but keep the bulk of the clean air going down in a laminar flow.

The next week the tables and benches for the robot will be installed, and then the stage will be set for the main player.

Lab Party!

The holidays are over, and everyone gathered back from the four corners of the earth they dispersed to. To celebrate the start of a new year we had a party. The theme was Italian Food.

Ariel made fresh fettuccine in three colors.

Moran, who just returned from Italy, made pizza dough and baked a series of fresh pizza on the premises. One problem is that by the time the pizza tray left the kitchen it was mostly empty, as the smell of the pizza coming out of the oven lured people to come and "taste" the creation.

We set up a WII station in the yard, and although the screen was far from perfect (a tablecloth) we did see some heated action.

The less happy part of the event was to say goodbye to few people. Ruty and Aharon who are finishing their M.Sc. and continuing to other things, and Ohad and Julia who finished their B.Sc. project with us. 

The dessert table was exciting and managed to cheer everyone up. 

We had a surprise appearance by Matan, a lab alumni, who showed his powers and cradled babies. 

And we ended the evening with an optimistic smile.

Back from Hiatus

After a long break this blog is back in action. In the last posts I covered the celebration of the new molecular laboratory and the start of the works on the second part. Since then there was a long summer. I traveled to the UK (Oxford), US (Boston), Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, and many other places). I was back to Israel for few days and then off to Austria, and then back again and off to Egypt, and then the Jewish High Holidays arrived.

While I was traveling many other group members were also traveling (some for longer and some for shorter periods), and so action at the lab was a stop-and-go process. Nonetheless, a lot has happened during the last three months, and I will try to summarize by quick snapshots, most of them taken by Assaf and Avital.

The renovation started with a fierce burst of rebuilding walls.

At the lab about that time we finally got proper chairs.

Following the drywall people, the systems people moved in to install electricity, pipes, and A/C.

In the working lab things kept improving. A new cabinet arrived. This required moving out the temporary ones, and covering all equipment again dust.

Some people tried to continue working in spite of the harsh environment.

At this point we (i.e., Ayelet) realized that the office next to the robotic room will be very small, and to make it less claustrophobic we asked the builders to open a window into the robotic room. This changed the perspective of the room quit a bit.

All the while the lab was teeming with activity, with many new faces such as Jenia, Eli, and Alon who came for the summer.

The main work was done and now we got into finishing the systems. The electricity board for the new section arrived, followed by the control board for the A/C. Each was tended to by a team of technician for more than a day.

The main issue at this point with the lab was the set up of the robotic room.

We worried allot about different options, and at some point decided to setup a mock-up to check whether the diagrams match reallity. We took a tape and marked the different parts on the floor.

 This led to arguments, rethinking, and eventually we settled on a plan, and ordered the furniture.

Few days later we learned that the UPS has finally arrived. We found several large cabinets, and a stack of batteries that was almost as tall as Naomi. 

Construction of the Second Half has Begun

This week the construction of the second half of the lab has begun.
Because there is a lot of noise and dust, Nir has escaped and left us alone in the lab (and in the dark). Surprisingly, though he is not here, the construction has begun successfully.

This new part will contain three rooms: the office, the robot room and the small kitchen. For now, the construction team has torn down the walls and laid infrastructure for constructing two drywalls that will separate between the new rooms. In addition, they made two halls for new doors that will enable entering and exiting each room without the need to go through the other rooms.

Here are some pictures so that the loyal readers of the blog (including one specific reader, that usually writes it) will know how it looks

The office

The robot room + the kitchen

The door to the robot room

The door to the kitchen