Customer voices: automation in the real world

Catch up on their presentations on demand and discover how laboratories are using the epMotion® system to improve efficiency, precision and reproducibility in real-world workflows.

From Manual ELISAs to 2.5× Throughput: Pronacera’s Automation Journey with epMotion^® .

Follow Pronacera's journey from manual plate work to high-throughput, automated ELISAs and microbiome assays - and how that transformation is helping them deliver precision health insights across Spain and Latin America.

In this talk, Chief Technical Officer, Jorge A. Ramírez Tejero introduces Pronacera, a Seville-based company specialising in:

• Reproductive genetics (endometrial receptivity, microbiome, and immune profiling to optimise embryo transfer timing).
• Intestinal and vaginal microbiome testing.
• Seminal microbiome analysis.
• Genetically based thrombophilia testing.
• A pioneering molecular tool for fibromyalgia, aiming toward future IVD compliance.

You'll see how a growing test volume (12,000+ tests/year across 10+ countries) pushed the team to rethink their laboratory workflow and move beyond manual ELISA and plate-based protocols.

If you're a small or medium diagnostics or genetics lab wondering whether a mid-sized liquid handler can meaningfully change your throughput and business, Pronacera's story shows how thoughtful automation - combined with strong vendor support - can multiply capacity, unlock new markets, and let your scientists focus on more than just pipetting.

From COVID Swabs to 6,800+ Cancer Patients: How Automation Scaled the Nonacus Lab.

Discover how Nonacus Clinical Services transformed from a small COVID-testing lab into a high-throughput clinical genomics service powered by automation.

In this talk, Laboratory Operations Manager Dr. Inderpreet Kaur explains how a team that once ran hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 tests a day used that same automation infrastructure to build three clinical services: hereditary cancer, bladder cancer, and tumor profiling.

You'll see how the lab:

• Hit the “manual ceiling” of 12 -16 extractions and libraries per operator and why that made automation essential.
• Scaled gdna extraction from 12 -16 samples per run to 96 samples per run using epMotion, cutting hands-on time from ~5 hours to under 1 hour.
• Achieved a <1% extraction failure rate with fully on-deck lysis, bead-based extraction, washes, and elution.
• Automated DNA normalisation from a 2-person, 3_hour task to a single-operator, ~30-minute workflow with consistent target concentrations (±10%).
• Expanded NGS library prep capacity from 16 to 96 libraries per run, with time-consuming bead cleanups handled entirely on deck.
  
  

The talk culminates in a powerful metric: 6,841 hereditary cancer results delivered with <1% failure rate, all built on an automated, scalable laboratory backbone.


If you're running a diagnostics or genomics lab and wondering how to grow beyond manual throughput while keeping failure rates low and staff focused on high-value tasks, this behind-the-scenes look at Nonacus' journey from pandemic swabs to precision oncology will give you concrete ideas, numbers, and lessons learned you can apply in your own lab.

See how Promega and Eppendorf team up to turn manual DNA extraction into a robust, semi-automated workflow - with concrete advice you can apply in your own lab.

In this talk, Field Support Scientist Ismail Cisse shares:

• How Promega supports automation projects free of charge (conditions apply) and remains platform-agnostic.
• The three “levels” of automation, and why this session focuses on modular liquid handling (epMotion^® ).
• When you're truly “ready for automation”: validated manual workflow, sufficient sample volume, need for consistency, audit trails, and freeing up staff time.
  
  

Using a real clinical diagnostics case study (gDNA extraction from blood), he walks through:

• Moving from a manual, column-based workflow with multiple centrifugation steps to a plate-based, bead-based Maxwell HT system on epMotion.
• Choosing the right kit (Maxwell HT gDNA) and why it's crucial to speak with Promega specialists to match chemistry to your real samples.
• Validating chemistry manually or via Maxwell cartridge systems before you even touch the robot.
• Translating a stepwise lysis -bind -wash -elute protocol into robotic actions: pipetting, heating, shaking, magnetisation, plate moves.
  
  

If you're evaluating how to automate Promega kits or similar chemistries on epMotion^® or other liquid handlers, this talk gives a clear, realistic roadmap --from readiness criteria, through method design and optimisation, to delivering reliable, validated results in a clinical setting.

Follow the team at Hvidovre Hospital's Department of Clinical Biochemistry as they share their 10-year journey from a fully manual NIPT workflow to a robust, semi-automated setup using Eppendorf epMotion^® . Laboratory Specialist Lena Werge walks through how they went from more than 200 pipetting steps per 8-sample run to a streamlined cfDNA library preparation pipeline on Illumina NextSeq - with reduced hands-on time, higher reproducibility, and far fewer errors.

You'll hear how the lab:

• Implemented non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) based on maternal plasma cell-free DNA.
• Evaluated different automation platforms before choosing epMotion^® for maximum flexibility.
• Optimized critical steps like bead clean-up and PCR, and even removed entire QC steps thanks to reliable automation.
• Went from struggling with operator-dependent variation and “pipetting thumb pain” to training 11 staff members to run the workflow confidently.
  
  

The talk also highlights how this robust automated workflow enabled new clinical research, including the COBOL (Copenhagen Pregnancy Loss) study, where cfDNA analysis helped show that around 50% of miscarriages in the cohort were associated with chromosomal abnormalities.

If you’re working in clinical genomics, NGS labs, or considering automating NIPT or cfDNA workflows, this real‑world story from a public hospital lab shows what it really takes – and what becomes possible – when you move from manual to automated NGS library preparation.

Register now and watch all four webinars on demand at your inconvenience.