• Question: How does Janus help you with your studies?

    Asked by andrewf97 to Enda on 12 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by cheeseman, minimellow.
    • Photo: Enda O'Connell

      Enda O'Connell answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      Hi Andrewf97

      Good question. Janus is a high throughput robot, which means that she can be used to carry out lots of experiments as fast, if not faster, than we could do them by hand. For example, we can get Janus to add thousands of different drugs to different samples of breast cancer cells at the same time, to see which of them is best at killing cancer cells. If we were to do this by hand it would take an awfully long time, and as we always need to repeat this type of experiment to be sure it has worked properly, it would take even longer! This way we have a much better chance of finding a cure than if we had to look at the drugs one by one.

      Also, sometimes our experiments can take hours or even days to finish, because of all of the different steps involved and the time it takes for reactions or incubations to occur. By using Janus to carry out these type of lengthy experiments, it allows me and other scientists to go back to the lab and do other kinds of research. Scientists have to be good at multitasking, and Janus is like having your own assistant to help you with your work!

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