The arrival of GATC’s – our – PacBio RS on June 28, 2011, will be remembered as a modern military operation.

Strategically planned and organized, precisely executed up to the nanosecond – and observed by an impressive number of European journalists plus a livestream on Facebook!

Normal people would get nervous.

Tobias Ost, Senior Field Applications Specialist of Pacific Biosciences, recently visited GATC Biotech in Constance for a site inspection and preparedness test: Nitrogen generator and compressor? Check. HVAC? Check. Hubble adapter? Check. UPS? Check. Floor flatness test? Check. Vibration test? Check. IT system? Check. 

The biggest challenge will be to get the 800kg machine into the 2nd floor. One bottleneck remains to be overcome: GATC's Door-to-Nowhere (a perfect name given by Tobias). The PacBio will have to be lifted lengthwise on a hydraulic ramp to get it through a width of 142 cm. Third Generation Strategic Planning is underway. Done by our CTO, Thoms Pohl, himself.

Stay tuned for the next installment.

PS: For all who do not know it yet: Our PacBio RS is the very first one installed in the labs of a commercial sequencing service provider in Europe.