The SmartLab Exchange Europe 2023, whichtook place from 22-23 February in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is one of the global meetings for lab informatics leaders. Scimcon continues its proud sponsorship of this event, as well as this month’s North American event in San Diego on 22-23 March, facilitating one-to-one meetings with a number of informatics customers from all major lab-centric sectors. The continued sponsorship of the event provides access to the community of senior R&D, Quality Assurance and Quality Control decision-makers from industry in both North America and Europe.
Feedback and voice of the Industry
Attending from Scimcon was co-founder and lead consultant, Geoff Parker, who took the opportunity to poll attendees and delegates of the attending organisations, to identify the current 2023 trends in the lab informatics industry. This includes R&D executives, Quality Assurance and Control leaders, and Regulatory specialists from organisations such as GSK, P&G, AstraZeneca, BioNTech, and more.
Summary of trends in lab informatics for the modern lab
In the informal poll of attendees at SmartLab Exchange, Scimcon has been able to identify key trends and themes that are important to the modern lab in 2023.
Of the total 73 delegates polled, 68 delegates – with budgets ranging between 500k to millions in GBP – volunteered which technologies they are interested in investing in within the coming 12 months.
Some of the key investment priorities included:
30.8% flagged digitalisation as a priority in 2023 (21 delegates)
20.6% noted automation as a priority investment area (14 delegates)
13% cited LIMS as 2023 priority (9 delegates)
When asked about additional investment priorities, 7 delegates stated that the following areas were also of interest this coming year:
Digitalisation, Agile process, AI
Automated Analytics/Analysis
Harmonisation
People/Talent
Risk assessment, based methodologies, toxicology, product expertise
Reducing QC Testing
Infrastructure
Attendees also ranked their interests and what topics they wanted to address at SmartLab. As illustrated, lab automation, and AI/ML in particular, are high priorities for lab leaders in 2023, with other high priority areas including data quality and integrity, instrument connectivity and IoT, and data integration.
Geoff summarises “As lab informatics consultants with a global customer base in leading lab centric organisations, it is important to us to check in frequently with influential decision-makers from the lab. SmartLab Exchange offers us a useful ability to poll the attendees and see trends that will impact the modern lab decision-maker, and will help us at Scimcon to hone the way we partner with our customers. The attendees we spoke to were split between R&D and QA/QC – with 43% in R&D, 24% in Quality, and 16% in both. We very much look forward to catching up with delegates at the US event in March, and it will be interesting to see how trends and priorities differ or align between the US and Europe.”
SmartLab Exchange is attended by invite-only decision-makers. The unique invite-only format of the event means that both sponsors, speakers and delegates can access a closed community that meets their individual needs.
Scimcon is proud to continue its sponsorship of the SmartLab Exchange Europe and US events in 2023, and the team is excited to connect with delegates at the US event on 22-23rd March 2023.
To learn more about how Scimcon supports science centric organisations with data solutions and lab digitalisation, or to organise a meeting at the US event, contact us today.
To catch up on the themes discussed in our EU panel discussion, you can read our blog here.
The countdown to SmartLab Exchange US is on, and we will be officially sponsoring the event and taking part in an insightful panel discussion on Wednesday 22nd March 2023. After our success at SmartLab Exchange EU this year, we are delighted to be travelling to San Diego for the US summit from 22nd to the 23rd March 2023. Here, we will explore what the two-day event will involve.
Our co-founder Geoff Parker, will be leading the opening panel discussion on how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is will affect the flesh and blood scientists of the future. A cohort of industry leaders will join our lead consultant, including Robert Pluim from Genmab, Miu-Ling Lau from Merck, and Scott Stanley from the University of Kentucky.
The conference in San Diego, North America takes place annually and provides leading experts in the lab informatics field with the opportunity to build connections and take part in thought-leadership discussions. As the event is invite-only, this means that attendees share the same mindset, enabling attendees to connect with the right people and extract the most value out of interactions.
What can we expect to see from Scimcon at the event?
After a short welcome and opening address from NASA data scientist, Timothy Darrah, the panel on ‘What Is The Future For Human Scientists As AI & ML Deliver the Promised Step Change in Laboratory Practice?’, will commence at 8.40am on Wednesday 22nd March 2023. As a panel chair at the event, Geoff will be leading the discussion with key opinion leaders across the lab informatics space, facilitating the discussion among US delegates on what the future benefits may hold for human scientists as AI and ML come to the fore. From 10am onwards, there will be an opportunity for one-to-one business meetings, as well as peer-to-peer networking for delegates and attendees to form new and lasting connections with other industry experts.
Why attend SmartLab Exchange US?
At Scimcon, we find real value in attending conferences and tradeshows on a global scale, to meet with informatics industry experts: particularly as SmartLab Exchange US provides us with a platform to debate themes such as: Lab of the Future, Data, Digitalisation, Quality Management and Standardisation, AI and ML, and more. Throughout the event, you can expect to receive expert advice on laboratory digitalisation through automation, cutting-edge informatics tools and technologies that will become part of our daily lab life.
Scimcon’s unique hands-on experience in the lab makes us a trusted partner for many of our clients, as knowing the science as well as the systems is at the heart of what we do. If you’re someone that benefits from face-to-face interactions and networking, come along to the US summit and organise a meeting to find out more about how we can support your informatics endeavours.
Can’t make it to SmartLab Exchange US? Then look out for our upcoming blog that will detail the next event Scimcon is attending…
To organise a meeting with our team at the event, or to learn more about how Scimcon can support your digital lab transformation, contact us today.
In February and March 2023, Scimcon is hosting panel discussions at both SmartLab Exchange Europe and SmartLab Exchange US. The events, taking place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and San Diego, North America take place on an annual basis as a forum for scientists in the modern lab to interact, form new connections, and learn more about the evolving technology that is disrupting the lab. Attendees and speakers will debate themes including: Lab of the Future, Data, Digitalisation, Quality Management and Standardisation during the conferences.
As a sponsor and panel chair in 2023, Scimcon’s opening panel discussion ‘What Is The Future For Human Scientists as AI & ML Deliver the Promised Step Change in Laboratory Practice?’ explored the future of human input in the lab, and how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) could impact the structures and processes in place.
AI and ML are everywhere we look – in the news, on our phones and other smart devices, and are increasingly making their way into other areas of our daily lives. In transport, we’re seeing steps being made towards self-driving vehicles. But what will happen to those engaged with the transport sector when human input is no longer required?
The same questions can be asked about the lab. We have seen similar disruptions in the past, and many scientists will still remember the days of cutting out chromatograms to weigh them and calculate peak areas – a task which now is fully automated. Through the employment of similar automated technologies – from sample prep, to HTS, and sophisticated instrumentation – we have been able to give more time back to scientists, to allow them to spend longer on the science that matters.
Our panel at SmartLab Exchange Europe and US will dig deeper into AI and ML, and how it will impact the role played by human scientists in years to come.
Tackling the AI & ML questions for scientists
The panellists will debate the big questions facing scientists on the topics of AI and ML during the sessions, including:
First; where are we seeing AI/ML making inroads into our labs today?
What will be the major areas of scientific workflow likely to be impacted by AI/ML?
What tasks do we believe will remain the domain of humans?
If AI/ML reduces the number of experiments that we need to do to achieve our lab targets, how will this affect the lab structure?
We have all heard the phrase “Enable Scientists to spend more time doing science”
What will scientists do with the additional time this next phase of technology will present us with?
Will lab sizes contract or will we seek to deliver ever greater results with similar sized operations?
What key skills will our scientists need in this new paradigm and how will this effect training and recruitment needs?
Scientists are exposed to rapidly changing technologies and work practices more than most people. How do we feel they will react to the likely significant change triggered by AI/ML?
Predicting timelines of future technology is never easy; when do you see the major impact of AI/ML occurring in your labs?
Following the SmartLab Exchange, Scimcon will summarize topics of key interest to the audiences in a future blog.
To join the discussion and hear more how AI/ML will impact laboratories and scientific operations, contact our team for more information.
We’re kicking off 2023 with a new industry leader interview, and shining a spotlight on Jana Fischer, Co-Founder and CEO of Navignostics.
In this blog, we speak to Jana about Navignostics’ mission, and how the team plans to revolutionise personalised oncology treatments with the help of data and AI.
Tell us about Navignostics
Navignostics is a start-up personalised cancer diagnostics business based in Zurich, Switzerland. Our goal is simple – we want to revolutionise cancer treatment by identifying a highly personalized and thus optimal treatment for every patient, to ensure that each patient’s specific cancer is targeted and fought as needed. Our capabilities allow us to do this by analysing tumour material, through extracting spatial single-cell proteomics information. and using this data to analyse many proteins simultaneously in individual cells within the tissue.
What is spatial single-cell proteomics?
Single-cell proteomics comprises of measuring and identifying proteins within a single cell, whereas spatial proteomics focuses on the organisation and visualisation of these proteins within and across cells. Combining these two research tools allows the team at Navignostics to characterise tumours on a cellular level, by identifying the proteins present across cells in a tumour, and also how these proteins and cells are organised. This means that the team can provide a more accurate estimate for how certain tumours will respond to different medications and treatments.
Proteins are typically the target of cancer drugs and measuring them on a cellular level allows us to identify different types of tumour cells, as well as immune cells that are present and how the two interact. This data is highly relevant to inform clinicians of the best form of (immuno-) oncology and combinatorial treatment for individual patients. Also, this information is highly relevant to pharma companies in order to accelerate their oncology drug development, by providing insight on drug mode of action, and signatures to identify responders to novel drugs.
The kind of data that we are able to extract from different types of tumours are monumentally valuable, so the work doesn’t stop there. All of the data we harness from these tumours is stored centrally, and we plan on utilising this data by building it into a system we refer to as the Digital Tumour, that will continuously allow us to improve the recommendations we can make to our clinical and pharma partners. Our journey has been rapid, though it is built on years of research and preparation: we founded the business in 2022, as a spin-off from the Bodenmiller Lab at the University of Zurich.
The dream became a reality for us in November 2022, when we secured a seed investment of 7.5m CHF. This seed funding will allow us to pursue our initial goals of establishing the company, achieving certification for our first diagnostic product and developing our Digital Tumour. By extension, collaborating with pharma and biotech partners in oncology drug development. It has also given us the resource we need to move to our own premises. We are due to move off university campus in May 2023. This offers us great opportunity to push forward with the certification processes for our new lab, and it gives us to the chance to grow our team and expand our operation. We will be located in a start-up campus for life science organisations in the region of Zurich, so we’ll be surrounded by companies operating in a similar field and at a similar capacity.
Tell us more about the Digital Tumour – how does it work?
The Digital Tumour will be the accumulation of all the molecular data we have extracted from every tumour that we have analysed to date, and ongoing. Connected to that, we store information on the clinical parameters and patient response to treatment. Over time, our aim is to utilize this central data repository to identify new tumour signatures, and build a self-learning system that will provide fully automated treatment suggestions for new patients, based on how their molecular properties compare to previously analysed patients that have been successfully treated.
Sounds interesting – are there any challenges to working with a database of this size?
Our data storage is quite advanced, so volume isn’t really a challenge for us. Our main focus is standardising the input of data itself. The technology is based on years of research and the data analysis requires a great deal of experience and in-depth expertise. In order to extract the full value from this data, it must be completely standardised. Data integrity is therefore vital to our work, and allows us to get the maximum value from past analyses. Our past experience in the Bodenmiller Lab allowed us to develop standardised processes to ensure that all of our data is fully comparable, which means that we can learn more and more from our past data, and apply this to new cases that we analyse.
It is also important to report on our complex data in a comprehensive but easily interpretable manner to the clinician/tumour board who needs to organise a treatment plan. We’re currently working with our clinical collaborators to develop readily understandable and concise reporting outputs. Unlike genomics analysis, our reports focus on proteins in tissue, which is the same information that clinicians are used to working with. So, there is a common language there that offers us the unique opportunity to provide clinicians with data they can easily interpret and work with.
What does this kind of research and data mean for oncology, both in terms of pharmaceuticals, biologics, and healthcare?
It’s important to note that personalised treatment approaches and precision medicine are not new concepts in the diagnostics space. However, our technology and algorithms allow us to extract novel types of biomarkers which were previously inaccessible or unknown, so we’re helping to level up the playing field and give clinicians and drug developers’ comprehensive information to individualize therapies.
Comprehensive tumour data is truly at the heart of what we do, and one key benefit of our technology is that we’re able to analyse very small amounts of sample – such as fine needle biopsies – to provide therapy suggestions. We can also analyse bio banked tumour material, so if there is any old material that has been stored, we have the ability to analyse those samples retrospectively. Not only does this help us to fuel our Digital Tumour with more data, but it also allows us to examine new fields such as long-term survival rates of patients with these tumours. This is of huge value to fuel our product development pipeline because it allows us to identify different molecular properties between individuals that may not have been considered on a clinical level, but may have played a role in patient responses to treatments and survival outcomes in the long-term.
This kind of retrospective data also plays a key role in the evolution of healthcare and drug development, as having the technologies available to acquire this sort of data and mine it to our advantage will provide enormous benefits. These include improving individual treatment courses for patients, as well as expediting the development of novel cancer drugs so pharma companies can get more effective treatments to market sooner.
For example, one commonly cited statistic is that 90% of clinical drug development fails during phase I, II, III trials and drug approval. Often, this may arise from a lack of available information to identify the subset of patients most likely to benefit from a novel drug. Having access to Navignostics’ technology and algorithms and a database such as the Digital Tumour will offer the potential to pre-select the right patients to enroll in clinical trials, and more easily identify the patients that do respond to the novel treatment, which could substantially expedite the speed of drug development in the trial stage, and help bring more effective drugs to the market.
Even unsuccessful trials offer valuable opportunities: it is possible to repurpose and reanalyse material from previous failed trials. Such high rates of failure in clinical development means that there are a large number of companies that have invested $millions in developing drugs that have not come to fruition, so if companies want to re-mine their data, our team can reinterpret the existing work into identifying more successful strategies, so we can give those drugs another chance and offer a better chance of Return on Investment.
A failure no longer needs to be a failure. Navignostics and its offerings can bring value to our pharma and biotech partners, and will also bring direct benefit to patients and clinicians once we launch our diagnostics product. So, data from every facet of the oncology industry, from curing a patient to halting the development of a drug, can offer us valuable insight that both we and the Digital Tumour could learn from when developing treatments.
What does 2023 and beyond have in store for Navignostics?
The next three years will be critical for our work, and we have projected timelines and key milestones for our diagnostics developments that we will achieve until our next funding round. Along the way, we are actively speaking to biotech and pharmaceutical organisations to identify projects and build the foundation for long lasting collaborations. We are looking forward to a successful continuation of the Navignostics development in 2023!
Scimcon is proud to showcase start-up companies like Navignostics, and we’re looking forward to seeing how the company will grow over the coming years.
To contribute to our industry leader blog series, or to find out more about how Scimcon supports organisation with lab informatics and data management solutions, contact us today.
Scimcon continues to meet the criteria for Carbon Neutral Britain for a second time in 2022. This has been attained through conducting the required measuring, calculating, and offsetting carbon emissions between the period of June 2021 and May 2022.
After first receiving the initial award in 2021, we are proud to have maintained this title throughout the following year, underpinning Scimcon’s global commitment to a sustainable future.
Our commitment to carbon footprint
Co-founder of Scimcon Geoff Parker recognises the global nature of the company after first obtaining the award in 2021; “Our customer base consists of a diverse range of lab-centric organisations including large pharma and biopharma companies internationally. As Scimcon sees further expansion and more on-site projects in 2022, we are keen to drive our sustainability initiative through the global projects taking place all over the world. Carbon Neutral Britain pledged to offset our remaining carbon usage with accredited global projects that reduce the amount of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere. After gauging the environmental impact of our operations, we knew this would be a priority of ours moving forward.”
Global projects
We renewed our Carbon Neutral Britain certification by offsetting against four international projects set up by our awarding sponsor. The Burgos Wind Project is the largest wind farm in the Philippines. This project produces clean energy, omitting sources that contribute pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions to the environment. Also, the Rice Husk Power Project, the first renewable energy scheme to utilize rice husk as biomass fuel for electricity generation in Cambodia. Not forgetting the remaining two projects, the Andes Mountains Hydro Power in Chile, and the Huaneng Changyi Wind Farm Project. All equally as impactful, we recognise that offsetting our carbon usage against projects like these is vital for our own global strategy here at Scimcon.
Our impact
As we continue to operate in the complex lab informatics field, Scimcon’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions must continue to benefit our customers. Scimcon will continue to responsibly balance the very real need for on-site client interaction with the use of innovative communications, thereby reducing the impact of unnecessary travel. If taking part in auditory assessments and remediations like this one offsets our necessary emissions and contributes to a more sustainable future, the Scimcon team is more than dedicated to its requirements.
For more information about how we originally achieved our certification, visit our blog. To learn how Scimcon can help support your business with its IS strategy, contact us.
SmartLabs UK is just days away from taking place in the capital of the country, and we’re proud to be sponsoring the 4th Annual SmartLabs Congress 2022 in London this year. Here, we explore what the two-day event will entail.
On the 8th and 9th September 2022, the Novotel London West will open its doors in welcoming leading experts of the lab informatics field to educate, inform and excite. From technical presentations to think-tank roundtable discussions, we had to join in.
The progress of laboratory digitalisation
Within a post-pandemic society, our reliance upon digital technology is greater than ever. In the field of life sciences, lab scientists are seeking better ways of consolidating and storing data. While paper-based labs are largely a thing of the past, many are filled with isolated information systems and nonstructured approaches, such as experimental workflows based at least partly in Excel.
Not only do such environments risk human error in transcription and duplication they restrict the organisations’ ability to search and mine data for critical insights.
Removing these disjointed workflows and dataflows are a key part of the wider digitalisation processes which are taking place throughout the lab space. It is no longer enough for laboratories to solely rely on LIMS, ELN, SDMS and instrument data systems.
It is important for the Scimcon team to stay ahead of the zeitgeist from customer-to-customer. Keeping up to date with current trends in lab informatics is at the heart of what we do.
What has this got to do with Oxford Global’s SmartLabs UK? The event will be split into two easy-to-follow streams, featuring all things lab informatics. If you’re unsure of what the latest innovations are, SmartLabs UK will provide the latest updates via over 50 cutting-edge presentations and a series of interactive discussions.
Why attend SmartLabs UK?
With virtual events becoming the norm in recent years, it is exciting for attendees to be given the opportunity of an in-person, collaborative experience. Day one of Oxford Global’s SmartLabs UK involves the exploration of monitoring and operational tools, and virtual reality tech demonstrations. Day two will delve into data standardisation and governance in lab informatics, and this is just the beginning. Some of the confirmed leading experts attending the event include the Genentech Director, Erik Bierwagen and Goldsmiths University professor, Larisa Soldatova.
If you think you’ve heard all of the latest informatics tools and technologies that are available, one of the benefits of attending SmartLabs UK will be the advice given on how to use these systems to leverage your data. After all, it is vital to understand how to put theory into practice. Taking advantage of the event’s opportunity for interaction, the 4th annual congress will provide an Event App. This will allow attendees to watch selected presentations on-demand, and contains extensive networking features. The benefits of using the app include; a dynamic agenda in which you will receive notifications of any changes to the day, a chance to the view the profiles of all speakers and organisations and a personalisation tool that allows you to organise and plan your schedule. There will also be an Event App prize draw for those participating in specified activities throughout the event.
How Scimcon supports SmartLabs UK
As programme sponsor of Oxford Global’s SmartLabs UK, we are thrilled to assist in paving the way to laboratory digitalisation through automation, cutting-edge informatics tools and technologies. We believe that the digitisation of your laboratory projects should be done with the best advice and trusted expertise behind you. In turn, this is vital for the healthy reproduction of the life sciences industry.
Throughout the event, you can expect to receive this information in an engaging, illuminating way and through a variety of mediums. We will help to deliver think-tank discussions as well as trusted, face-to-face conversations with our team members who have direct lab experience. For those who prefer independent research and networking, we support the use of the Event App for all your lab informatics queries.
To organise a meeting with our team at the event, or to learn more about how Scimcon can support your digital lab transformation, contact us today. To learn more about lab informatics read more on our blogs via our website.
The Lab of the Future is a concept that we have discussed at length during our time in supporting life science organisations around the globe, and that is gaining significant traction with the growth in digital transformation of the lab. So it was an easy decision that when we came across Open Pharma Research’s bi-annual event – Lab of the Future – that we had to get involved.
With the March congress on the horizon, we take a look at some of the trends within the industry over the last year, and what to expect from the March event.
With digital transformation hot on the global agenda, what’s next for analytical and clinical laboratories? What will the lab of the future look like? Lab of the Future’s March congress aims to answer that question.
What will Lab of the Future deliver?
With a selection of activities scheduled across the 2-day event, there is no shortage of opportunity for attendees to get involved – whether that’s in-person in the Boston, MA event, or from the comfort of their own workspace via virtual attendance.
The agenda features a range of roundtables and presentations, including plenary sessions, as well as more focussed discussions on specific topics, from the digital lab to the connected innovation lab. The tradeshow will also feature plenty of networking session throughout, allowing individuals to form valuable new connections and learn more about some of the key players and innovation across the industry.
The event also welcomes a wide of speakers presenting and hosting discussions during the 2-day period. With confirmed speakers from GSK, Merck, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Astrazeneca, amongst many others, it’s guaranteed to be an event filled with interesting discussions from some of the organisations that have become household names over the last 24 months.
In addition to discussions, the event is also hosting technology showcases, for leading solution providers to demonstrate some of the latest and most disruptive innovation that they’ve been perfecting behind the scenes. Focussed work tracks also allow attendees to take a more in-depth look at some of the latest technologies and trends in 4 key areas – lab automation, digitalisation, connectivity, and innovation.
How Scimcon supports the Lab of the Future
Lab of the Future is an insightful event, and one that we look forward to as well as sponsor each year. The in-person aspect of the event will make for a refreshing change following the pandemic restrictions experienced worldwide, but the additional virtual element of the tradeshow means that users around the globe can participate and get involved, regardless of restrictions and concerns surrounding COVID-19 and travel.
However, in addition to the event, the lab of the future is a concept. Our team at Scimcon has over 20 years of experience in laboratory informatics, and with many of our team members having direct lab experience, we can help you get your digitisation and laboratory informatics project off the ground, whilst understanding the questions and concerns faced by scientists every day.
Scimcon is proud to be sponsoring the Lab of the Future March congress, taking place both virtually and in-person at Hilton Back Bay, Boston, MA on 22nd-23rd March 2022. To organise a meeting and to learn more about how Scimcon can take your lab to the future, contact us today.
A few months ago I read an article on bioprocess 4.0, which discusses how combining AI and ML with extensive sensor data collected during biopharmaceutical manufacturing could deliver constant real-time adjustments, promising better process consistency, quality and safety.
This led to a discussion with some of my colleagues about what the future of Lab Informatics could look like when vendors start to integrate AI and ML into products such as lab information management systems (LIMS), electronic lab notebooks (ELN) and others.
What is AI and ML?
AI: In simple terms, AI (artificial intelligence) makes decisions or suggestions based on datasets with the ultimate aim of creating truly instinctive system interfaces, that appear like you are interacting with a person.
ML: ML (machine learning) is one of the methods used to create and analyse the datasets used by AI and other system modules. Crucially machine learning does not rely on a programmer to specify the equations used to analyse data. ML looks for patterns and can ‘learn’ how to process data by examining data sets and expected outcomes.
How does ML work?
The following example is extremely simple, but it helps to illustrate the basic principles of ML. The traditional approach to adding two values together is to include the exact way the data should be treated within the system’s configuration.
By using ML, the system is given examples, from which it learns how the data should be processed.
Once the system has seen enough datasets, the ML learning functions learn that A & B should be added together to give the result. The key advantage of ML is its powerful flexibility. If we feed our example system with new datasets, the same configuration could be used to subtract, multiply, divide or calculate sequences all without the need for specific equations.
Where can we see examples of how ML and AI are used in everyday life?
Possibly without realising it, we already see ML in everyday life. When you open Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV+ the recommended selections you are presented with are derived using ML. The systems learn the types of content each of us enjoy by interpreting our previous behaviour.
Most of us also have experience of personal assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. These systems are excellent examples of AI using natural speech to both understand our instructions and then communicate answers, or results of actions. ML not only powers the understanding of language but also provides many of the answers to our questions.
The fact that we all can recognise such an effective and powerful everyday example shows just how far AI and ML have come since their inception in the 1950s.
How will AI and ML affect the day-to-day operations of the lab?
Voice recognition software has been available for decades; however, it has not made large inroads into the lab. It has been used in areas where extensive notes are taken, areas such as pathology labs or for ELN experiment write ups. These are the obvious ‘big win’ areas because of the volume of text that is traditionally typed, the narrow scope of AI functionality needed, and the limited need to interface to other systems.
However, companies such as LabTwin and LabVoice are pushing us to consider the widespread use of not just voice recognition, but natural language voice commands across the lab. Logging samples into LIMS, for example, is generally a manual entry, with the exception of barcode scanners and pre-created sample templates, where possible. Commands such as “log sample type plasma, seals intact, volume sufficient, from clinic XYZ” is much simpler than typing and selecting from drop downs. Other functions such as “List CofAs due for approval”, “Show me this morning’s Mass Spec run” would streamline the process of finding the information you need.
Opportunities to take advantage of AI and ML within lab systems.
Take stability studies where samples are stored in various conditions (such as temperature, humidity, and UV light) for several years and ‘pulled’ for analysis at various set points throughout the study.
The samples are analysed for decomposition across a matrix of conditions, time points and potentially product formulations or packaging types. Statistics are produced for each time point and used to predict shelf life using traditional statistics and graphs.
Stability studies are expensive to run and can take several years to reach final conclusions.
AI and ML could, with access to historical data, begin to be used to limit the size of studies so they can focus on a ‘sweet spot’ of critical study attributes. Ultimately, this could dramatically reduce study length by detecting issues earlier and predicting when failure will occur.
Moving on to lab instrumentation
Instrument downtime, particularly unscheduled, is a significant cost to laboratories. Using ML to review each new run, comparing it with previous runs and correlating with system failures, could predict the need for preventative maintenance.
AI/ML interventions such as these could significantly reduce the cost of downtime. This type of functionality could be built into the instruments themselves, systems such as LIMS, ELN, Scientific Data Management Systems (SDMS) or instrument control software. If this was combined with instrument telemetry data such as oven temperature, pump pressure or detector sensitivity we have the potential to eliminate most unplanned maintenance.
Another major concern with instrumentation in labs today is scheduling and utilisation rates. It is not uncommon for instruments to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros, and getting the highest utilisation rates without obstructing critical lab workflows is a key objective for labs. However, going beyond the use of instrument booking systems and rudimentary task planning is difficult. Although it is not hard to imagine AI and ML monitoring systems such as LIMS and ELN, there is far more that can be done to ensure this functionality can go even further. Tasks such as predicting workload; referring to previous instrument run times; calculating sample / test priority; and even checking for scientist’s free diary slots are all tasks that can be optimised to improve the scheduling of day-to-day laboratory work. The resulting optimisation would not only reduce costs and speed up workflows, but would dramatically reduce scientists’ frustration in finding available instruments.
Data integrity
Over the last few years, there has been a massive focus on data integrity within regulated labs. However, many of the control mechanisms that are put in place to improve integrity or mitigate issues are not real-time. For instance, audit trail review is often done monthly at best, and generally quarterly. Not only is it tedious, it is all too easy to miss discrepancies when reviewing line upon line of system changes.
ML could be used to monitor the audit trails of informatics systems and instrument systems in real-time and AI could report any out of the ordinary actions or result trends that do not ‘look’ normal to managers. Where appropriate, the system could interact with the corporate training platform and assign specific data integrity training to applicable teams. The potential increase in integrity of data while reducing the headcount needed to do so could be significant.
Final Thoughts
Lab directors, IT professional and the Lab Informatics industry are quite rightly focusing on the digital lab and digital lab transformations. Done right, this will form and excellent platform for the next level of informatics development using AI and ML to propel not just digital science forward, but to revolutionise the everyday life of scientists. Personally, I cannot wait!
To find out more about how Scimcon can support your informatics project, contact us today.
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