Resumo

FLORES MEDINA, Pablo Jonatán; GARIBAY MURILLO, Paola  e  PENALOZA MENDOZA, Guillermo Rey. Automation of inoculation in culture media for the microbiology laboratory. Rev. cienc. tecnol. [online]. 2023, vol.6, n.4, e285.  Epub 25-Jun-2024. ISSN 2594-1925.  https://doi.org/10.37636/recit.v6n4e285.

The clinical laboratories belonging to the health system in Mexico are among the most discriminated departments due to factors such as sources of financing, as it requires strong administrative management, as well as the dependence on vast infrastructure, material, and human resources. Pneumonia, a disease that can be detected in a subclinical stage, is the 2nd cause of death from respiratory infections in Mexico and is, in turn, the 7th cause of death in the country. For the early diagnosis of diseases caused by microorganisms such as the one just mentioned, laboratory tests are performed, including inoculation in culture media for the proliferation of said microorganisms, however, the techniques used are manual, delaying technological progress. applied in terms of automation, which would allow better workflows with fewer resources. A great challenge in automating the process is cross contamination that occurs at the time of inoculation, as well as decontamination and sterilization after sowing. Considering this, the model of a device that performs the microbiological culture process automatically was developed, emphasizing the variables involved to avoid cross contamination and sterilization of the areas, comparing various decontamination techniques, the ones that best fit us are through exposure to UV light, since we avoid the malfunction of electronic components due to temperature.

Palavras-chave : Clinical laboratory; Streak; Culture sowing; Microorganisms; Cross contamination.