Flexible Biotech Facility Monitoring & Alert System
Genetic Therapy, Inc. (GTI) recently constructed a new building in Gaithersburg, Maryland for biotech research. The new facility needed a system to provide unattended monitoring and data logging of microenvironments used to culture and preserve experiments. Protecting this valuable research meant continuously evaluating a variety of alarms. The automated system needed to monitor and log equipment temperatures for up to 500 sensors located throughout a state-of-the-art biotechnology research facility. The system had to operate unattended 24 hours a day, and had to alert on-call technicians via pager of any out-of-range alarm events or equipment failures. To meet these needs, Data Science Automation (DSA) built a system for GTI that acquires and conditions the sensor data remotely using National Instruments FieldPoint nodes located throughout the facility. The system then communicates the data to a central PC via RS-485, checks limits, and logs and trends the data witl1 National Instruments Lookout
Genetic Therapy, Inc. (GTI) recently constructed a new building in Gaithersburg, Maryland for biotech
research. The new facility needed a system to provide unattended monitoring and data logging of
microenvironments used to culture and preserve experiments. Protecting this valuable research meant
continuously evaluating a variety of alarms.
The automated system needed to monitor and log equipment temperatures for up to 500 sensors located throughout a state-of-the-art biotechnology research facility. The system had to operate unattended 24 hours a day, and had to alert on-call technicians via pager of any out-of-range alarm events or equipment failures.
To meet these needs, Data Science Automation (DSA) built a system for GTI that acquires
and conditions the sensor data remotely using National Instruments FieldPoint nodes located
throughout the facility. The system then communicates the data to a central PC via RS-485,
checks limits, and logs and trends the data witl1 National Instruments Lookout
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Feature Articles
Automating and Monitoring Biotech Storage Environments
Generic Therapy, Inc, us.es FieldPoint and Lookout to
denlop monitoting applications
Gregory C. Cala, PhD and David S. Reed
Genetic Therapy, Inc. (GTI) recently constructed a
---
new building in Gaithersburg, Maryland for biotech
rese.arch. The new facility needed a system to provide •·--·- ,,- I
-•-(llr,J,i, - - • - •
unattended monitoring and data logging of --·-EJ- ll,J•L,.:J •l:J·
microenvirolllllents used to culture and preserve
experin1ents. Protecting this valuable research meant
Figure 1: Panelforconftgun)tg the
continuously evaluating a variety of alarms.
parameters of an indil--idual data acquisition
channel
The automated system needed to monitor and log
equipment temperatures for up to 500 sensors located throughout a state-of-the-art
bioteclmology research facility. The system had to operate unattended 24 hours a day, and
had to alert on-call teclmicians via pager of any out-of-range alarm events or equipment
failures.
To meet these needs, Data Science Automation (DSA) built a system for GTI that acquires
and conditions the sensor data remotely using National Instruments FieldPoint nodes located
tluoughout the facility. The system then collllllunicates the data to a central PC via RS-485,
checks lintits, and logs and trends the data witl1 National Instruments Lookout 4.0.
System Configuration
Initial requirements for facilities monitoring c.alled for equipping 383 devices with sensors for
me.asuring temperanires, gas concentrations, and alarm relays. The system needed to monitor
devices such as liquid rtitrogen (LN) dewars, freezers, refrigerators, and cell culture
incubators. The devices are located tluoughout 72 laboratories, storage areas, and hallways
on two floors of the building, and at a separate site nearby called the G&.A building. The
widespread physical distribution of the equipment made it necessary to divide the collection
of sensors into nine groups or "nodes," each surrow1ding a remote data acquisition wtit.
DSA selected National Instruments FieldPoint
distributed I/0 for tl1e remote data acquisition wtits,
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supporting tl1e measurement of 362 individual 3-wire ---••" lil[IJ~ • ~••"'-
R TD temperature probes (measuring -SOC to
ambient), 11 voltages produced by incubator CO
concentration mortitors (nominally 50 mV), and 21 ~· p, l to ,~ th ,f
. . . . . c rgure 1 a: ane COJ'!,,gure . e groups o
digital relay closures provided by LN tank mo111tonng scheduled alann suspe 11 s; 011
wtits. These cha,mels were acquired using 46
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