Mats Sandgren

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Mats Sandgren is a biologist-engineer dedicated to democratizing high-throughput phenotyping for the research community. His primary research focus lies at the intersection of automation, computer vision, and plant biology, specifically developing accessible tools for model organisms grown on Petri plates. Sandgren’s major contribution is the creation of SPIRO (the automated Petri plate imaging platform designed by biologists, for biologists), a custom-built, open-source system that replaces manual, time-consuming phenotyping with automated, high-resolution imaging. This work directly addresses a critical bottleneck in biological research: the limited availability of expensive commercial phenotyping facilities. By designing a solution that is both affordable and replicable, Sandgren empowers individual labs to conduct large-scale experiments with precision. His publications on SPIRO have garnered over 24 citations, reflecting a growing demand for such practical, user-driven automation. Sandgren’s achievement lies not just in building a functional robot, but in creating a platform that embodies the principle of "by biologists, for biologists"—ensuring that the tool is intuitive, adaptable, and truly meets the needs of its users. His work is a testament to the power of interdisciplinary engineering to accelerate discovery.