The human genome has an established role in development and aging, but genetics alone cannot predict susceptibility to complex processes involved in health and disease. Instead, behavioral and environmental factors can result in epigenetic changes – reversible chemical modifications to DNA and DNA-associated proteins that can switch genes ‘on’ or ‘off’ – adding a layer of complexity to the way that genetic instructions are carried out.

Setting the pace for epigenetics testing

Genknowme, in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 2019 by a passionate group of scientists looking to empower health professionals in assisting their patients with making informed decisions to improve their quality of life. The company has developed a unique epigenetic blood test that provides a personalized profile and indicates a person’s biological age. This informs highly individualized lifestyle changes that will help to promote healthier aging, including smoking cessation, reducing alcohol intake, improving diet or taking up exercise.

Epigenetics research can be a complex and time-consuming process, and the repetitive pipetting steps are prone to manual errors. These challenges prompted scientists at Genknowme to introduce VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipettes into their liquid handling workflows to improve their pipetting precision and overall productivity. Dr Laurence Chapatte, Chief Technology Officer at Genknowme, explained: “We are always looking for ways to increase our throughput for faster results and more immediate patient outcomes. We purchased two 8 channel VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipettes – one 12.5 μl and one 125 μl – allowing us to pipette multiple samples at once. Their motorized tip spacing feature also aids the transfer of samples between labware of different formats. Introducing the VOYAGER pipettes minimized the number of liquid handling steps performed in the laboratory, significantly speeding up our workflows and giving us a competitive advantage over similar companies by increasing our throughput.” She continued: “The ability to program different protocols onto the pipettes is an additional benefit, as consistently following the same processes is a way to streamline liquid handling and avoid mistakes.”

Forging the path to automation

The laboratory has since phased out its workflows that required sample reformatting, but the VOYAGER pipettes will not lie idle for long. Genknowme has promising plans for implementing automation in the lab, which will enable the expansion of the current testing panel to include a wider variety of epigenetic biomarkers. Laurence added: “The multichannel pipettes are also compatible with the ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot, which we plan to purchase in the future. Introducing automation will further reduce the workload for our scientists by minimizing hands-on time, and this will allow us to work on developing new tests for different biomarkers. For example, soon we hope to add new stress biomarkers to our testing portfolio.”

Tailoring treatments of the future

Genknowme is one of few life sciences companies participating in the epigenetics revolution, and INTEGRA’s pipetting solutions have been vital in the development of its laboratory. In addition, the potential to automate the VOYAGER pipettes on ASSIST PLUS holds promise for further improvements in testing efficiency, as the company looks to make epigenetics testing available to a wider population. Laurence concluded: “We currently carry out testing for private clinics but, as our technology advances, we hope to reduce the financial barriers to testing and make epigenetic assessments more affordable and accessible for a larger population. Epigenetics is an emerging area of science that produces personalized results, and therefore it holds immense potential for clinicians and patients alike. Healthcare is moving in a proactive direction – focusing on prevention rather than treatment – and epigenetics testing lies at the forefront of holistic, personalized and preventative care.”