title: The RABiT: a rapid automated biodosimetry tool for radiological triage. II. Technological developments.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Over the past five years the Center for Minimally Invasive Radiation Biodosimetry at Columbia University has developed the Rapid Automated Biodosimetry Tool (RABiT), a completely automated, ultra-high throughput biodosimetry workstation. This paper describes recent upgrades and reliability testing of the RABiT.
  
  
  METHODS
  The RABiT analyses fingerstick-derived blood samples to estimate past radiation exposure or to identify individuals exposed above or below a cut-off dose. Through automated robotics, lymphocytes are extracted from fingerstick blood samples into filter-bottomed multi-well plates. Depending on the time since exposure, the RABiT scores either micronuclei or phosphorylation of the histone H2AX, in an automated robotic system, using filter-bottomed multi-well plates. Following lymphocyte culturing, fixation and staining, the filter bottoms are removed from the multi-well plates and sealed prior to automated high-speed imaging. Image analysis is performed online using dedicated image processing hardware. Both the sealed filters and the images are archived.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We have developed a new robotic system for lymphocyte processing, making use of an upgraded laser power and parallel processing of four capillaries at once. This system has allowed acceleration of lymphocyte isolation, the main bottleneck of the RABiT operation, from 12 to 2 sec/sample. Reliability tests have been performed on all robotic subsystems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parallel handling of multiple samples through the use of dedicated, purpose-built, robotics and high speed imaging allows analysis of up to 30,000 samples per day.
authors.affiliation: Radiological Research Accelerator Facility, Columbia University, New York, NY 10533, USA. gyg2101@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Garty
authors.forename: Youhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Helen C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Oleksandra V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Lyulko
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bertucci
authors.forename: Yanping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Hongliang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Nabil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Simaan
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Randers-Pehrson
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lawrence Yao
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Brenner
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000097:blood*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes