Alegria II

A project for Orgentec Diagnostika, a German manufacturer of laboratory test systems. Alegria is a device for autoimmune disease diagnostics and infection serology. Project Alegria II is a redesign of Alegria for enhanced testing capacity, better automatizations and improved patient sample handling.

What is serology?

When someone gets infected by e.g. a virus or bacteria (or even in case of autoimmune diseases), the body starts to produce antibodies as a response to that incoming alien protein. By analysing a patient's relevant body-fluid (blood, urine, etc) a machine like Alegria could through automatic chemical process sequences, diagnose a known illnes by detection of antibodies in a specifik patient body-fluid. This video shows an example of how it can be done through an ELISA method:

My Contribution

As a consultant at Prevas AB, I was part of the Alegria II project 2016-2017

My direct responsibility was designing the machine's Liquid distribution unit and the Strip loading unit. I also contributed to the Sample loading unit and made a timing-flow analysis for the whole system, which means automatization of the steps in above video.

Liquid Distribution Unit

Equipped with valves and pumps, this module acts similar to a heart for the instrument, dispensing the exact amount of the correct liquid, with micro-liter precision, at the correct location on the right time.

• Mechanical representation of an advanced timing-flow diagram that automatically covers all steps and processes
• Close cooperation with suppliers for optimal choise of valves

Strip Loading Unit

Here the strips are loaded for entrance into de machine. They consist each of eight wells containing reagents and coatings necessary for different analysis.

• Strip load capacity increased from 30 (Alegria) to 800
• Designed mainly with sheet metal and injection molded plastic
• Automatic scanning of strips
• Stepper motor integration

Sample Loading Unit

Here liquid sample tubes from patients are placed in a rack to be automatically fed into the machine and scanned. A pipetting robot will then aspire the samples for targeted mixing in a process station.

• Designed mainly with sheet metal and reinforced injection molded plastic
• Automatic scanning of test tubes
• Improved user interface

Project still in development