Note: Before you start this series of tutorials, make sure that you complete the first, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth series (i.e., every tutorial that begins Core elements tutorial 1.x, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x and 10.x).
In this tutorial you will learn how the Core Elements can be used to build workflows that use logic functions into the liquid handling process. By doing so, workflows can be built to ensure the processes you automate are:
scalable,
flexible,
able to make decisions.
As a scientist, you make decisions everyday about how to handle samples. You use your knowledge of the samples to decide and differentiate how groups of samples should be treated to achieve a desired result. However, automating these decisions can be challenging. Within the Core Elements, you can use sample metadata associated with each sample to drive this decision-making in an automated way.
By integrating simple logic into the architecture of the workflow, we can ensure that the workflow is able to execute liquid handling based on the specification of a particular sample(s). In turn, this allows samples with divergent processing requirements to be treated differently in the liquid handling steps. This allows workflows to be more scalable and flexible, as different groups of samples can be combined and processed en masse.
The use of sample metadata to build decision-making into your workflows frees you from having to understand and remember the inherent knowledge associated with different sample groups, making the execution of a process more accessible across diverse teams and specialisations.
Smart workflow construction empowers scientists to focus on the experiment, safe in the knowledge that the workflow will account for decisions about how to process your samples.
This series of tutorials covers a real world example which applies the following principles:
Using Select with sample parameters to cherry pick liquids,
Using Select with metadata to dictate liquid handling using If-Else logic,
Using multiple Select criteria to build AND logic,
Integrating scalability and flexibility.
The tutorials in this section follow on from one another. Each function listed above will be demonstrated individually to construct a workflow. We will then see how these workflows can be reused to build highly complex functionality from simple building blocks.