The autoanalyzer represented a significant advance in medical laboratory technology in the 20 th century. This device, developed by Leonard T. Skeggs, ended the days in which laboratory technicians spent hours mixing reagents to test for substances in blood or urine. The autoanalyzer could perform over 20 tests in 24 seconds.
Leonard Skeggs (1918- ) earned his master’s degree in 1941 and his PhD in 1948 in biochemistry at what would become Case Western Reserve University. He joined the faculty in 1950, became a full professor in 1969 and became emeritus professor in 1988. He was also director of the hypertension research laboratory at the Cleveland Veterans’ Administration Hospital. Skeggs was affiliated with various well known Cleveland medical researchers including: Harry Goldblatt, a pioneer in hypertension research, Jack Leonards, a former head of the biochemistry department at CWRU, and Paul Berg who went on the win the Nobel Prize for his work on recombinant DNA.
Although Skeggs was involved in all of these important projects, his major accomplishment remains the autoanalyzer. Fed up with long waits in for blood sample tests, and confusion in the laboratory, Skeggs decided to look for a better way. He stated that, “One day it suddenly occurred to me that analyses could be done in a continuous flowing stream rather than batches or discretely.” Skeggs set to work building his prototype. With borrowed money he bought the necessary materials. By 1951 a working model had been developed. Skeggs continuously improved and streamlined his design for the next 3 years. The instrument automatically mixed equal amounts of reagents and successive specimens and then measured the resulting color changes of each mixture.
One of Skeggs’ later designs, the sequential multiple analyzer with computer (SMAC) series, moved the state of the art from one test per specimen per minute to more than twenty tests every twenty-four seconds. The SMAC did its own calibrations and transmitted results directly to a laboratory computer. The results were highly accurate and reproducible, and the mechanization increased productivity and lowered costs.
Between 1951 and 1954, Skeggs showed his prototype to four large companies and was turned down each time. Then, in February 1954, a salesman from a small company called Technicon visited Cleveland’s Crile V.A. Hospital. He met Leonard Skeggs who showed him the autoanalyzer. At the time, Technicon was primarily known for the Autotechnicon, used for tissue biopsy. The salesman, Ray Roesch, suspected that a machine that could do automatic analyses would be of value to his company. Roesch was told to bring Skeggs and his autoanalyzer to N.Y. “no matter what.” After a demonstration of the machine’s capabilities was performed for Technicon, Skeggs signed a contract with the company. For the next four years Technicon concentrated on converting the crude Skeggs prototype into a commercially viable autoanalyzer. Introduced in 1957, it sold 50 the first year, 4000 by 1963, and 18,000 by 1969. The machine truly revolutionized clinical chemistry, sent Technicon into an enormous growth spin, and rewarded Skeggs handsomely. Technicon became a multimillion dollar corporation and Skeggs retired to a large estate in Chagrin Falls, Ohio to raise Arabian Horses.
