Hamilton Research Support Grant

Unboxing the Prep and running the first calibrations was an exciting moment for all the faculty and staff at the Shoreline Community College Biotechnology department – and our students will be able to join in that excitement very soon. Hamilton’s generous support through the Research Support Grant Program allows us to bring automated liquid handling directly into our teaching labs. We train students for biotechnology technician positions, where these days automation is an essential part of daily workflows, and we need to ensure our students are prepared for that reality and understand how to make the most of the benefits of automation. We are really thankful for Hamilton’s investment in our program, and we look forward to developing new training opportunities and integrating the system into our core biotechnology courses beginning in Fall 2026.

The Hamilton Microlab Prep will be a transformative tool for our laboratory’s efforts to make automated, high-throughput experimentation more accessible to academic polymer chemistry research. With support from the grant program, we will be able to integrate the Microlab Prep into our workflow for reproducible liquid handling, rapid formulation, and small-scale reaction preparation. This will allow students to move beyond traditional one-reaction-at-a-time experimentation and begin thinking about chemistry through the lens of automation, data quality, and scalable experimental design. Importantly, the instrument will also serve as a hands-on training platform for graduate and undergraduate researchers, giving them practical experience with modern laboratory automation that is increasingly important across academia and industry. I believe the grant support will have a direct impact on our research productivity, educational mission, and ability to build a more efficient, reproducible, and future-facing polymer synthesis program. We are grateful for this support, which has helped us establish a strong foundation for automated experimentation in our lab.