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The Laboratory Robotics Interest Group Home |
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Are you interested in licensing, acquiring, investing, or learning about emerging technologies? Attend this program to hear short presentations from emerging and early-stage companies with new laboratory automation tools, technologies, and business models. Sponsored by the Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA), this inaugural session is chaired by the Laboratory Robotics Interest Group (LRIG) and Ampersand Ventures. Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2003 For Attendees: Agenda: For Presenters: Presentations
Allegro Technologies Allegro Technologies is a leading innovator of low volume liquid handling instrumentation. Allegro proprietary spot-on?technology is capable of delivering accurate and reliable volumes in the range of 20 nL to 20 無 in non-contact mode, offering a range of unique features and benefits. This exciting technology will be commercialised in 2003 through a variety of channels, including Allegro branded products, licensing and OEM collaborations. Allegro Technologies will make a clear and concise presentation at the
forthcoming showcase focusing on the following topics.
Microplate Automation, Inc. Paul Hensley, President of Microplate Automation, will present a technical overview of TipCharger?technology, the value proposition of the technology, discuss product integration requirements, and outline general requirements and expectations of strategic partnerships and distribution agreements. He will be available to meet with representatives of corporations and qualified investors following the presentation.
Picoliter Inc. Picoliter Inc. is a development stage company with a novel technology for precisely moving and sensing very small volumes of liquids including compounds dissolved in DMSO, proteins and live cells. We are using this technology to enable a broad range of tools for life science researchers. Our current path is to focus on providing nanoliter dispensing instruments for HTS applications, as well as enabling emerging applications in cell- and tissue-based research.
Chemspeed Ltd. Chemspeed: Speeding-up lab routine by automated HTE (High Throughput Experimentation) The use of automated equipment for HTE in the new millennium has expanded from it origins in the Biotech- (High Throughput Assay Screening) and Chemical Industry (CombiChem, Parallel Synthesis) into laboratories in many other market sectors. Highly innovative new areas like CMR (Combinatorial Material Research) as well as more traditional working industries, e.g. the preparation of samples in analytical labs in the Food and Environmental Industry, have discovered High Throughput Equipment and Techniques to significantly increase their efficiency. For this reason equipment that was originally designed to accelerate the process of Drug Discovery, is now common in laboratories where multiple dispensing of liquids and solids represents one of the core requirements. Further needs strongly depend on particular workflows and are governed by the characteristics of individual applications. They might cover a very broad range starting from highly sophisticated conditions, like the use of reactive gases under elevated pressure, to relative imple?techniques like extraction, filtration or evaporation. For this reason only flexible, highly modular, and scalable equipment has the chance of covering the diverse needs of the industry. The general need for increased throughput and efficiency has boosted the continued evolution of automated laboratory equipment. Herein, we will describe an innovative robotic platform that will not only allow fully automated dispensing of solid and liquids, but also enables the user complete flexibility to configure the platform with the appropriate hardware for the application of his choice. Using selected examples, from a number of industries, this presentation will show how a variety of challenging processes have been totally automated on Chemspeed instrumentation.
VSOM, Inc. Visual Servoing Optical Microscopy: Getting Real Numbers From Living Cells VSOM, Inc. was formed to develop Visual Servoing Optical Microscopy. The VSOM apparatus links an instrumented microscope to a software system for image analysis and servo control of precision fluid pumps. Remote and local informatic systems are also integrated. Predfined programs control the pumps, providing time-varying reagent concentrations in a chamber containing living cells. Signals representing cell responses are extracted from digitized fluorescence microscope images. These signals are incorporated into algorithms that provide adaptive feedback control of the pumps. Retail applications will be found in drug discovery, target validation and development of cell-based assays for screening. VSOM seeks interested users, development partners and licensees.
Userspace Corporation Historically, processes in a laboratory has had several challenges: The Userspace instrument router platform and services addresses these problems by empowering scientists anywhere to create a data-driven dynamic process model that integrates lab instruments, data sources and analysis tools. It focuses on the instruments, their users and the scientific process, or protocol, as the information source. The data model is the result of the dynamic process. Under this concept, the instrument router framework (Bioinstrument) enables a legacy lab to become a secure, wireless network enabled lab, that can connect to other labs, researchers and their data seamlessly. Using a standard 'virtual' instrument panel and application server, scientists design lab processes and access all instruments and devices in the lab anytime, anywhere. Linked routers analyze the data from these processes in real-time, while the router platform stores it in a standard eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format and displays it in multiple formats. 'Pluggable' language independent standard interfaces would be available for the protocol layer for specific life-sciences verticals. Examples include LECIS, MGED and AnDI for biopharma, and AUTO3P and HL7/DICOM for healthcare. The router exposes these protocols as real-time XML data. Combining healthcare and biotech data standards allows for easier Clinical Trials information sharing, tracking and feedback for research. The current product focus is Proteomics in Discovery R&D and Flow Cytometry for Clinical Trials management. The anchor instruments identified in these areas have an installed base between $18 and exceeding $45 Billion. We believe life-sciences companies shall spend between $0.5 Billion and $4 Billion to integrate and automate these instruments and their processes by 2005. Business Model Summary: Sanjaya Joshi, Userspace CTO, is presenting at LA2003 on Wednesday Feb 5, 2pm as part of the Performance Metrics track: http://labautomation.org/la/la03/techprogram3.htm#Track3
Seyonic SA Seyonic's technologies and products provide real-time control in liquid handling systems in a wide range of volume, from nL to uL. By integrating a MEMS flow sensor directly at the dispensing site, together with full electronic feedback, the handling of liquid samples becomes independent of the sample physical properties and varying environmental conditions. In addition to the improved accuracy, the system reports action validation and dispense status information to the user, therefore greatly improving assay reliability and data quality. Seyonic's strategy is to form partnerships with leading instrument manufacturers for integration of controlled liquid handling capabilities onto existing or new platforms. This strategy allows bringing a complete integrated solution to the user as well as opening new applications.
Symyx Technologies, Inc. Symyx creates, practices, and delivers high throughput workflows that explore the chemical and physical properties of materials. Fields of practice include electronic materials, catalysts, polymers, and more recently, relevant areas of pharmaceutical development. At Symyx, high-throughput methods and tools are now in practice addressing critical areas of pharmaceutical pre-formulations, including solubility, salt selection and polymorphs, and other workflows are in development. The creation of these workflows has resulted in unexpected value for our customers and for our business. By combining both proprietary and commercial hardware, software, know-how, and intellectual property, these workflows fill critical unmet needs in the marketplace. We will discuss the business model and key factors that has resulted in the founding and dramatic growth of the Discovery Tools business at Symyx.
Innovadyne Technologies, Inc. Innovadyne is the industry leader in robust, precise low-volume liquid transfer technology that is suitable for the most demanding high-throughput environments. Innovadyne is well funded, and leading the market with instruments that enable non-contact dispense in volumes from 10 nl to 2.5 ml. The company has already launched several products with partners such as Apogent and Gilson - and is launching the Nanodrop(tm) with Thermo Labsystems at LabAutomation 2003. The company strategy is to develop best-in-class liquid transfer devices that enable the life science market today, while establishing our patented technology platform as the industry standard. Innovadyne's presentation will focus on:
BIOPHILE, Inc. BIOPHILE, Inc. will address its history, as well as its plans for the future. BIOPHILE, Inc., headquartered in Charlottesville, VA, is a leading manufacturer of automated, ultra-low temperature sample storage and retrieval systems for genomics, proteomics, DNA forensics, clinical, and drug discovery laboratories. BIOPHILE Inc. supplies fully-automated sample storage systems that operate at 80蚓, -40蚓 and 20蚓. BIOPHILE's technology provides sample validation and ensures sample security and integrity through managed group and individual sample access. The market's response to the Individual Vial Retrieval System being introduced February by BIOPHILE, Inc. and pressure from the International market are creating an interesting challenge. BIOPHILE is interested in having discussions with VC s or a strategic partner who may wish to consider investing in the expansion opportunities confronting BIOPHILE. Alan Davis, CEO at BIOPHILE, Inc. will be present at LabAutomation to discuss details with a qualified investor.
Nanostream, Inc. Partnering with Nanostream to get critical information sooner Nanostream develops microfluidic products that enable drug discovery groups to get critical information sooner. Nanostream has broad, microfluidic capabilities to develop products sought by organizations involved in drug discovery and development. During this talk, I will demonstrate how we have used our microfluidic platform and capabilities to develop specific products that address critical, unmet needs in all stages of research and development. For example, the first product built on this platform--a 24-channel liquid chromatography system--meets the same exacting specifications customers demand of their HPLC systems and yields consistent results from microchannel-to-microchannel and from run-to-run--all at a much higher throughput and using a fraction of the volume required by HPLC. We are currently evaluating new product opportunities for other significant markets. The presentation will feature videos and data to illustrate our capabilities for other applications, including serial dilution, cellular assays, and synthetic chemistry.
Contact [email protected] for further information on attending or presenting.
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