Numerous robotics innovators and vendors claim to be joining the fight against COVID-19. Sometimes, the robots involved take a less-obvious path. For example, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Celltrio Inc. is supplying robotic freezers that automatically store and retrieve human cells. These cell cultures enable scientists to work on new compounds and decreasing the time for drug discovery.

In cyrogenic cell culturing, Celltrio provides modular, fully automated systems that work 24/7, making the scientific process vastly more efficient. Cell culturing automation applies to the development of both therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

Celltrio starts fast with strong partnership

Celltrio launched just one year ago, in March 2019. The Silicon Valley startup’s co-founders, Charlie Duncheon and Dr. Jin-Oh Kim, are luminaries in robotics and factory automation, having both won the prestigious Joseph Engelberger Award for Leadership from Robotic Industries Assocation (RIA).

“We are excited to introduce the life sciences automation solutions proven in the Asian market by Robots and Design,” said Duncheon, who spoke at the Robotics Summit & Expo. “Robots and Design’s proven expertise as both a robot manufacturer and a life sciences solutions provider will serve our rapidly emerging market very well.”

Celltrio partner Robots and Design Ltd. has manufactured and installed over 5,000 robots and 11,000 linear modules in Korea. Celltrio said it plans to expand the technology and product line with U.S.-based engineering, product, and sales teams that will deliver products to the U.S. and other international markets.

Ready to ship

Celltrio’s stated goal is to bring industrial quality automation and robotics productivity, precision, and scalability to the life sciences market.

The Celltrio RoboStor line of automated liquid nitrogen (LN2) freezers provides cryogenic -195℃ storage solutions that it said are perfect for research and development, bio banking, and cell-culture applications. All are easily expandable to multi-freezer configurations for high-volume testing and production.

The RoboStor freezers can be included in an entire configuration of robotics and automation for a laboratory. Celltrio has a proven family of cell-culturing task modules that can be automated by adding a Celltrio robot or combined into a complete solution to fully automate cell-culturing process.

Celltrio’s intellectual property benefits from thousands of robotics implementations by its South Korean partner worldwide. Unlike other early stage companies, Celltrio has products ready to ship.

Editor’s note: This article was originally posted by Silicon Valley Robotics, a strategic partner of RoboBusiness.