What that experience taught Sridhar is that any lab or manufacturing environment could greatly benefit from improved environmental monitoring and control.
“The line between labs and factories is blurring. And what that means is a lot of the approaches that were traditionally used in manufacturing can start being used in lab work,” thinks Sridhar. “I think we're very well positioned to bring some new technologies to the space.”Elemental Machines works to proactively evaluate the entire laboratory environment to ensure that teams, processes, and equipment are utilized in the most efficient way possible.
But the potential impact of implementing smart lab technologies is not limited to just synthetic biology industry. Elemental Machines plans to use the $41 million raised in the last funding round to fuel commercial growth in research, clinical, and quality control lab services, as well as support related fields such as manufacturing, materials science, food tech, ag tech, and other industries."We are excited to build on the tremendous success we've had in the R&D space.
Lab automation is perhaps less sexy than wearables. But Sridhar sees the potential for tremendous impact by bringing Industry 4.0 technologies to science-driven enterprises. With the push to increase the U.S. biomanufacturing capacity, investments in automation, machine-to-machine communication, and AI-driven analytics are crucial to gain a competitive edge.
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