The Society for Lab Automation and Screening (SLAS) inaugurated its first European Conference & Exhibition, held at the Brussels Square Meeting Centre in Belgium, June 27 to 29. SLAS has been developing its European program of events for many years, but this was the organization’s first full exhibition. Nearly 100 exhibitors and 800 visitors attended the inaugural event.

Dr. Sabeth Verpoorte, president of SLAS, opened the conference with some remarks. With the greater global reach of the organization, SLAS has reorganized its councils. Rather than having separate North American and European Councils, new topic-focused councils have been created, with members drawn from both geographies.

Dr. Verpoorte took the opportunity to note the grant and support programs provided by SLAS, including a new program for visiting grad students to work for up to 6 months at a different university in another country. She also took the opportunity to highlight 2 upcoming conferences: the 2018 SLAS Advanced 3D Human Models and High-Content Analysis Conference, scheduled for October in Leiden, the Netherlands, and the 2018 SLAS Americas Sample Management Symposium, which will be held in November in Boston, Massachusetts.

The opening keynote speaker, Dr. Mathies Uhlén of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, gave an engaging talk with a discussion of the results of the Human Protein Atlas and related research stemming from that project. As the founding and current director of the Science for Life Laboratory, a collaboration of four Swedish universities, he has witnessed the growth of the organization to more than 1,200 researchers.

The Human Protein Atlas, begun in 2003, is an international effort to identify all proteins produced by the human body to further characterize which cells express them (the tissue atlas), and where they appear in subcellular structures (the cell atlas). The combination of this data with data from another long-term study that correlated protein data with more standard clinical chemistry data is now producing a new understanding of the effects of disease states on human proteins and the correlations between them.

Other keynotes at the conference discussed laboratory digitization and innovation in a changing world. Scientific talks were organized into several topic tracks, including discovery, technology, emerging investigative biology and career opportunities.

Dispendix introduced its prototype Calibri, an instrument designed to evaluate the accuracy of other liquid dispensing systems.

The exhibit hall also drew attention, and vendors were encouraged that the new event was off to a good start. A number of recently introduced or upcoming products were on display.

Dispendix introduced its prototype Calibri, an instrument designed to evaluate the accuracy of other liquid dispensing systems. Dispendix has developed unique droplet forming technology, which ensures a consistent size, for use in its own dispensing solutions. To dispense a desired quantity, a certain number of droplets must be generated, leading Dispendix to develop robust counting technology. The Calibri turns the calculation on its head; if a pipetted sample is turned into droplets, and the droplets counted, the total volume can be compared with the nominal volume of the aliquot to gauge the accuracy of the liquid handling system. It is hoped that the new system will be launched before the end of the year at a price under €7,500 ($8,427 at €0.89 = $1).

Photometrics develops cameras for the scientific world, in both customer-ready and OEM formats. Earlier this year, the company launched the Prime BSI Scientific CMOS Camera with 4.2 megapixels and 6.5 micron pixel dimension. These BSI and IRIS product lines, with prices ranging from about $2,000 to $20,000, are suited for many applications from live-cell imaging to super-resolution techniques.

Although the acquisition of Sierra Sensors had been announced only earlier this month (see IBO 6/15/18), the Bruker booth already had a “Bruker-ized” version of the system on display. Bruker expects the new system to be highly complementary with its MALDI MS systems for conducting binding assays after primary screening has been accomplished .

Building on its electronics manufacturing technology, Yamaha Motor has created life science robotics solutions.

Cytosmart has continued to develop its OMNI brand of live cell imaging, and its newest version expands the product from a single imaging area to a large-format imager that can analyze entire incubator bottles. A confluency module exists already, but the company hopes to develop software with additional imaging applications a full-featured launch before the end of year.

Building on its electronics manufacturing technology, Yamaha Motor has created life science robotics solutions. The new business venture began in September 2017, and the Cell Handler is the first product developed. The system, which began shipping last year, performs colony/cell picking and digital imaging.

SLAS Europe’s location in Belgium was in some ways fortuitous, as the event coincided with a meeting between Belgium and England in the World Cup. While the Belgian team triumphed, the many English partisans at the show were consoled not only that their team had already qualified for the knockout rounds, but the loss also allowed them to avoid mighty Brazil in the quarterfinal round. SLAS EUROPE 2019 will be held in Barcelona, Spain, June 26–28. The established US show will occur February 2–6, 2019, in Washington DC.