Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Lea B. Witkowsky is a researcher whose work sits at the critical intersection of public health, molecular biology, and automation. Her key research areas focus on developing scalable, high-throughput diagnostic solutions for infectious disease surveillance, with a particular emphasis on non-invasive sample collection and robotic processing. Her most significant contribution is pioneering a robotic RNA extraction protocol specifically designed for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance using saliva samples. This work, detailed in her highly cited 2021 paper, directly addressed the urgent need for large-scale, asymptomatic population screening during the COVID-19 pandemic. By eliminating the bottleneck of manual nucleic acid extraction, her method enabled rapid, automated processing of thousands of saliva samples, a specimen type prized for its ease of collection. This innovation has been cited over 27 times, demonstrating its immediate and practical impact on pandemic response strategies. Witkowsky’s achievement lies not just in a novel protocol, but in providing a robust, automated framework for future outbreak preparedness, making large-scale molecular surveillance both feasible and efficient.