I worked in a wetlab or for a bioinformatics company writing software for 4 years. One of the things that completely shocked me when I started working there, and I think most people don't appreciate, is that taking a liquid and figuring out what proteins are in there is a very hard thing to do. Then the next step -- how much does my sample have of the things I've identified -- is also hard to do. Doing either of them inexpensively is harder still. People still work hard on those two questions today, and there is still room for significant innovation around those two questions.
Also, CSI style science, where you drop a sample into the magic machine and an answer pops out is... nonsense. These are some of the most finicky machines you've ever encountered -- you always end up doing baselining / calibration runs, etc. Often they involve skilled lab work to set up, calibrate, run, and determine whether answers are significant.
I always had my suspicions about those machines they show on "House," where a vial of serum or blood is popped into the machine and out comes a printed checklist of tests run and positive or negative results.
It seems very doubtful that something like a rapid ELISA test for HIV can be done within a machine, in combination with many other tests.
Also, CSI style science, where you drop a sample into the magic machine and an answer pops out is... nonsense. These are some of the most finicky machines you've ever encountered -- you always end up doing baselining / calibration runs, etc. Often they involve skilled lab work to set up, calibrate, run, and determine whether answers are significant.