Biotech Research Needs New Tools
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Biotech reseearchers often find that the technology needed to do what they want to do is not there. For example, testing thousands of substances on cells and measuring the results precisely is going to take a great deal of time if done manually. To be feasible and useful, automated methods are needed to carry out such tests.
Another issue is doing things within affordable costs. Creating artificial skin models is something that can be done at competitive costs if automation is used to do it.
The Biopolis testing laboratory opened at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany is focusing on this issue. Biologists and engineers work together at the laboratory.
Engineers know how to use machines to process small objects and use robots to handle tiny amounts of fluid. On the other hand, they learn that living organisms like bacteria and cells from the human body rarely behave as the engineers would like them to do.
There are also completely new issues in biotech engineering that engineers have probably never come across before. For example, the equipment must be permanently sterilized and the gearboxes of robots must be encapsulated to prevent wear debris from contaminating the cell cultures.
Read about the first project that the lab is handling and other news at Research in Germany
Tags: automated equipment, biotechnology research
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Security of Cloud Technologies
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Google and others are promoting cloud computing, under which applications and data are stored on the Internet cloud. For clients of cloud computing such as users of Google Apps, this provides the opportunity to focus on their core business instead of worrying over information technology incidentals such as installing and configuring software, upgrading it and attending to data security and backup issues.
Cloud computing service providers will attend to all the incidental issues. Users simply start using the application they want, which can be in as quick as a few minutes. Users can also access the applications and data from anywhere with an Internet connection.
However, users have not yet got all that comfortable with entrusting their data to the cloud service providers. A recent Data Management Healthcheck 2010 survey by BridgeHead Software reports that only 6.5% of the respondents reported having used the cloud to store their data.
The healthcare industry will have to cope with huge volumes of data as it adopts IT more aggressively. Cloud storage of the data can save huge amount of headache typically associated with managing such data volumes. The data must be stored safe from unauthorized access, backed up regularly to ensure that a copy is available in case the original is lost and quickly reconstructed in case a data loss incident occurs.
The major concern of survey respondents about cloud storage was regarding the security and availaibility of the data. The data generated by the industry is highly confidential and the companies are committed to protecting patient data.
Despite such concerns, experts anticipate that the cloud will increasingly be the preferred destination for data storage, backup and archiving. Read the story at: eHealthServer.
Tags: cloud computing, data security, data storage, information technology
Posted in cloud computing, healthcare, information technology, trends | No Comments »
