At Argonne, however, a robot is being used to construct the modified bacteria that will produce new proteins an innovation that makes possible a major leap forward in determination of protein structures. The researchers are translating existing experimental protocols into software to operate the robot, optimizing their procedures to match its capabilities. Their plan is to develop biochemical characterization methods for most proteins and then to automate the analysis. The procedures most humans would find the simplest, such as opening and resealing containers, are often the most difficult to program into a robot. On the other hand, although the robot might require about the same amount of time as a human researcher to perform complicated experimental steps, it would perform such operations more accurately and consistently.
Structural genomics is only one aspect of what robots can contribute to molecular biology.
In addition to creating proteins for structure determination, they can also produce mutations or provide variants of selected proteins. Argonne's use of robotic methods in genomics research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research.