The Internet of Things in the Life Sciences Laboratory

Consider your cell phone; it has a high-power CPU, memory, camera, gyroscope, and GPS, to name a few of the sensors available, and it is connected to the Internet—all in a very small package at a relatively low price. Your phone has evolved from a single-use object into a complex system capable of a myriad of functions. The integration of local hardware and cloud software-as-a-service resources on the Internet enable the development of applications from simple monitoring to complex real-time analysis. The convergence of small, low-cost, high-function, connected components is responsible for the evolution of smart objects (things that can think), and the integration of smart things with the Internet has resulted in what is referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT).

From a life sciences perspective, this rapid increase in the availability of affordable, connected technology is enabling huge leaps in medicine and the laboratory. Ultrasound, EKG, and other diagnostic tools are now affordable and small enough to be handheld and potentially used directly by patients and monitored remotely by physicians.^1,2 In the laboratory, the IoT is allowing scientists to optimize laboratory operations and combine instruments to measure and respond to complex experimental conditions, opening the door to more detailed and more complex experimental designs.

A unique feature of the evolution of the IoT is that much of the technology is available at low cost to anyone, allowing rapid development of custom solutions. IoT systems based on the Arduino microcomputer are being used by scientists and hobbyists to develop weather and environment monitors, garden controllers, robots, and the like. Many of the sensors, processors, and connectivity tools are readily available on the Internet in easily accessible formats, and communities that help users learn how to connect and use them are thriving (e.g., SparkFun Electronics at https://www.sparkfun.com and Adafruit Industries at https://www.adafruit.com).

In this special issue of SLAS Technology, we showcase life sciences researchers who are pioneering the use of IoT technologies in their laboratories. For many laboratories, it is critical to optimize factors like throughput, cost, uptime, and result quality. IoT technology is being used to provide data for optimization, such as real-time monitoring of instrument usage and event tracking. Tayi ³ discusses the use of IoT in the lab to monitor instrument performance to ensure consistent quality and reduce maintenance and cost. Neil et al. ⁴ describe a real-world example of using IoT to monitor and optimize a laboratory system by tracking laboratory activity.

Laboratory function also can be improved by making instruments smarter. For example, Miles and Lee ⁵ discuss their use of IoT technology to enable new experimental approaches to improve result quality.

The bulk of the articles in this special issue focus on the innovative use of IoT technologies to build or improve laboratory instrumentation. As stated above, IoT technology is widely available and can be used by scientists to develop new instruments enabling new experiments. Courtemanche et al. ⁶ provide an overview of how their team uses 3D printing technology and IoT to create purpose-built instruments. Likewise, Patel et al. ⁷ introduce an enhanced EKG monitoring system.

Others describe the development of new instruments to improve existing processes, such as liquid handling. ⁸ Volden et al. ⁹ discuss how IoT technology is used to dispense aggressive liquids, and Fayaz Khan et al. ¹⁰ describe how Arduino microcontroller-based hardware is used to measure liquid helium transfers.

IoT can be used to drive efforts to simplify and improve how we interact with our labs and what those labs can do. Austerjost et al. ¹¹ investigate how IoT technology can be used to simplify interaction with instrumentation by evaluating the promise of voice-activated assistants in the lab. In addition, Iglehart ¹² explains how IoT addresses currently unmet needs in the clinical laboratory.

In putting together this special issue, we have tried to take the hype out of the IoT and show how this combination of technologies can be used to solve current and future laboratory issues. I would like to emphasize that this technology is accessible to any scientist, and the authors clearly demonstrate that we can use it to build tools in our laboratories that significantly reduce barriers to science.

In summary, the IoT is here to stay in our laboratories and is already revolutionizing the science we do and how we do it. The articles in this issue clearly demonstrate that IoT can reduce costs, improve result quality, and be used to implement new equipment. Connecting instruments to the cloud allows us to combine local laboratory data with advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning so that scientists can proactively model systems and respond to the models, enabling new innovations and approaches to research.