encom GmbH

In der Schweiz sind viele im Weltmarkt führende Unternehmen ansässig, die im Bereich der Medizinal- und Labortechnik tätig sind. Der Bedarf an Engineering-Dienstleistungen ist entsprechend hoch. Dank den erfolgreichen grösseren Unternehmen, sind auch die in der Schweiz ansässigen KMU-Dienstleister mit Medizinal- und Labortechnik Erfahrung, die erste Wahl für die Entwicklung von Anlagen und Produkten für die Medizinal- und Labortechnik.

Die encom GmbH ist in diesem Bereich sehr engagiert. Das Geschäftsfeld spielt im Unternehmen seit der Gründung im Jahre 2003 eine grosse Rolle. Durch laufende Projekte, Fachlektüren und Messebesuche halten wir uns stehts auf dem neuesten Stand. In abgeschlossenen Projekten haben wir unser Know How stets eingebracht und auch weiter aufbauen können. Wir freuen uns auf weitere Herausforderungen!

encom GmbH

Basel Life Science Week & MipTec 2015

Europe’s leading event for Drug Discovery and Life Sciences Research featuring keynote, forum, posters, symposia, courses, workshops and awards

Basel Life Science Week & MipTec 2015

Can you feel the pulse?

Yesterday one fellow reader of LabAutoamtions.com said: "You guys are doing great, it`s like this thing has a pulse!" Intentionally this project was planned to be, just a meeting point for people in the lab automation industry. Designed, to make lives of people easier, which are struggling with their devices and robots in the lab. And now it became even more..

I really can say with awe, this is a unique network of skilled professionals.  And the best thing anyway is:

IT`S FREE! No recurring membership fees or similars. Just pure content, useful and honest. And as anyone can contribute to this website in different ways, this may be a game changer very soon. Blog submissions, events or forum entries as well as directory listings and all the other fun stuff on here. Amazing! Thanks to all contributors at this point, to the supporters and interested readers as well!

Best Regards, Artur Markus

Can you feel the pulse?

Basel Life Science Week & MipTec 2015

Europe’s leading event for Drug Discovery and Life Sciences Research featuring keynote, forum, posters, symposia, courses, workshops and awards

Basel Life Science Week & MipTec 2015

STRATEC & Artels - A strategical partnership (german)

STRATEC Biomedical AG

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Am 12. Januar 2015 gab die STRATEC Biomedical AG ihre Partnerschaft mit Artel für die Vermarktung der patentierten Liquid-Handling Instrumentierungslösung zur Qualitätssicherung "Tholos" des Unternehmens bekannt. Gemäß den Vertragsbedingungen der beiden Unternehmen wird Artel, das weltweit führende Unternehmen im Bereich Qualitätssicherung von Labor-Liquid-Handling, mit Wirkung zum 1. Januar 2015 exklusiv die von STRATEC entwickelte Technologie "Tholos" unter Artels Markennamen in ihren Kernmärkten vermarkten.

Die exklusive Vertriebsvereinbarung kommentierend, sagte Kirby Pilcher, Präsident von Artel, dass ihre Kunden von dieser leistungsfähigen Technologie profitieren werden, die weiter deren Fähigkeit erhöht, qualitativ hochwertige Ergebnisse sicherzustellen. Die strategische Partnerschaft mit STRATEC, einem führenden Unternehmen in der Bereitstellung automatisierter Systeme, die in Laboren weltweit eingesetzt werden, führte zu einer perfekten Ergänzung von Artels Portfolio von Produkten und Services zur Qualitätssicherung von Liquid-Handling, fügte er hinzu.

Gleichzeitig sagte Marcus Wolfinger, Vorstandsvorsitzender von STRATEC: "Wir sind sehr stolz darauf Artel, das weltweit führende Unternehmen im Bereich Liquid-Handling Qualitätssicherung, als Partner gewonnen zu haben".

Gemäß dem Finanzkalender des Unternehmens, soll sein Konzern/Jahresabschluss für 2014 planmäßig am 14. April 2015 veröffentlicht werden.

Das Unternehmen informierte in seinen Neun-Monats-Finanzinformationen vom 22. Oktober 2014, dass STRATEC sich 2014 auf die Erreichung weiterer wichtiger Entwicklungsmeilensteine, zusätzliche Markteinführungen und den Abschluss der Verhandlungen für neue Entwicklungs- und Produktionsverträge konzentriert. Der anhaltende Aufschwung des Geschäftsbereichs Serviceteile ist hauptsächlich auf einen leichten Aufschwung der Testvolumina bei Diagnoselaboratorien in den USA zurückzuführen und auf anfänglichen Lageraufbau für neu gelieferte Systeme.

Darüber hinaus wird die Ausweitung der Produktions- und Entwicklungskapazitäten des Unternehmens in den kommenden Quartalen eine bedeutende Rolle spielen. Ein Beispiel hierfür ist der geplante Bau eines eigenen Entwicklungskomplexes an STRATECs Standort in Rumänien, bei dem die Bauarbeiten voraussichtlich Anfang 2015 beginnen werden. Das Unternehmen plant auch eine Ausweitung seiner Produktionsbereiche an seinem Beringen Standort in der Schweiz. Diese Maßnahme, die ebenfalls für 2015 geplant ist, wird die Produktionskapazität der STRATEC Gruppe um etwa 20% ankurbeln.

STRATECs Umsatz erhöhte sich um 15,9% gegenüber dem Vorjahr auf EUR105,3 Millionen in den ersten neun Monaten von 2014, getrieben durch volumenstarke etablierte Systeme und anhaltend positive Entwicklungen des Geschäftsbereichs Serviceteile, zusammen mit Umsätzen neuerer Systeme. Das Umsatzwachstum profitierte auch von steigenden Volumina an Entwicklungsarbeit, welche voraussichtlich zu weiteren positiven Entwicklungen bei neuen Markteinführungen in den kommenden Jahren führen werden.

Das EBIT nach neun Monaten erhöhte sich um 37,7% gegenüber dem Vorjahr auf EUR17,7 Millionen, entsprechend einer EBIT-Marge von 16,8%. Das konsolidierte Nettoeinkommen stieg um 43,8% auf EUR14,6 Millionen und der Gewinn pro Aktie stieg um 42,5% auf EUR1,24. Die Verbesserung der EBIT-Marge wurde getrieben durch eine Umsatzsteigerung bei Serviceteilen, sowie die positive Entwicklung der Bruttomarge für leistungsfähige Systeme und eine Volumensteigerung des Verkaufs solcher Systeme.

Credits to http://www.finanzen.at/

STRATEC & Artels - A strategical partnership (german)

VolitionRx adds three new laboratory automation systems to expedite sample analysis for its large ongoing clinical trials

VolitionRx Limited, a life sciences company focused on developing blood-based diagnostic tests for a broad range of cancer types and other conditions, today announced that it has procured three additional Tecan EVO200 automated liquid handling systems (automated laboratory robots) to expedite analysis of samples for the ongoing large clinical trials evaluating its NuQ® cancer detection platform. By increasing capacity to four automated systems, throughput and rate of sample analysis will be greatly increased, enabling faster development of the Company’s NuQ® tests.

Cameron Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer of VolitionRx, remarked:

This budgeted investment greatly supports our Company’s strategic decision to maximize the speed and efficiency of our ongoing large clinical trials. The use of four automated systems will support the generation of extensive amounts of data and allow for faster study timelines to full data readouts. We expect that this increased data generation capacity will result in more scientific publications, quicker access to CE mark in Europe and an overall accelerated approach to regulatory pathways worldwide

Using its first installed robot, VolitionRx has recently completed the analysis of a first NuQ® assay on the complete set of 4,800 blood samples for its large retrospective, symptomatic population colorectal cancer study in collaboration with Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Procuring three new Tecans allows the Company to dedicate one robot to this study, and VolitionRx now hopes to complete one NuQ® assay per month on the full data set for the 4,800-patient cohort. At this capacity, the Company expects to finalize its analysis and determine an initial NuQ® colorectal cancer panel during the second half of 2015.

Gaetan Michel, PhD, Chief Operations Officer of Belgian Volition, commented, “The fully-dedicated Tecan platform currently allows us to run analysis of approximately 5,000 samples per month per robot. The reproducibility and robustness of these automated assays is extremely encouraging and will allow for optimal output of reliable large scale results. We are currently further optimizing the platform process to reach a 50 percent capacity increase to 7,500 samples per month per robot.”

VolitionRx Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Jake Micallef added:

Over the past five years, since VolitionRx was established, we have manually processed approximately 30,000 samples across all our studies, in multiple cancers. Due to the significant increase in the number of clinical studies we now have underway, and our constant development of new biomarkers for new assays, we determined that it was essential to make a step change in our processing capabilities through additional automated platforms. This investment will allow us to reach an impressive capacity of 30,000 assays per month, approximately the same amount as we have completed in total. The first robot is fully up and running and all four are due to be delivered by the end of April and should be fully operational by the end of May

The NuQ® tests utilize the Company’s proprietary Nucleosomics® technology platform, which identifies and measures circulating nucleosome structures for the presence of epigenetic cancer and signals within the blood.

 

VolitionRx has developed a suite of NuQ® assays for more than 20 different epigenetic structures on nucleosomes. These assays use two antibodies. The first antibody is attached to a plastic surface and binds to nucleosomes. The second antibody is chemically detectable and binds to the epigenetic structure of interest contained within the nucleosome. When blood is added to the antibody-coated plastic plate, nucleosomes in the blood bind to the first antibody. The second antibody is then added and can only be chemically detected if nucleosomes containing the epigenetic structure of interest are present. The NuQ® assay uses less than a single drop of blood to measure nucleosomes that contain the epigenetic structure of interest and the level of these nucleosomes is different in the blood of cancer patients than in healthy people. Each NuQ® cancer test uses a combination of 4-5 of these proprietary assays to form a “panel” test.

 

Clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of VolitionRx’s assays include:

Colorectal cancer:

•    A 4,800 patient retrospective symptomatic population study (Hvidovre Hospital,          University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

•    A 14,000 patient prospective screening study (Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

•    A 250 patient prospective study (CHU-UCL Mont Godinne Hospital, Belgium)

Lung cancer:

•    A 600 patient prospective confirmatory study (University Hospital, Bonn, Germany)

Prostate cancer:

•    A retrospective study to establish the efficacy of VolitionRx’s NuQ® tests to distinguish anaplastic prostate cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease, from typical castration         resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), the less aggressive form (MD Anderson, Texas)

•    A 120-patient prospective feasibility study (ImmuneHealth, Belgium)

Ovarian cancer:

•    A 40-patient prospective feasibility study (Singapore General Hospital, Singapore)

20 most prevalent cancers

•    A 4,000 patient prospective study that involves patients with the 20 most prevalent      cancers at University Hospital in Bonn, Germany

Endometriosis:

•    A prospective study to assess VolitionRx’s NuQ® tests for the diagnosis of                  endometriosis (the University of Oxford, United Kingdom)

 

Source: VolitionRx

VolitionRx adds three new laboratory automation systems to expedite sample analysis for its large ongoing clinical trials

FESTO Lab Automation

From feeding, identifying and qualifying sample holders to moving, opening and closing test tubes and test holders to feeding liquids: Festo provides you with support for all your laboratory processes.

FESTO Lab Automation

Why it`s time to automate your lab?

Why lab automation is essential to create the ability to deliver fast, accurate test results while becoming a consolidated workflow environment that maximizes throughput, reduces errors, and contains costs?

There is a strong competitional pressure for clinical laboratories: health care reforms, a slow economy, and administrative orders. To survive, labs must streamline operations, maintain low operating costs, and increase diagnostic accuracy. In many cases, lab automation has not only helped labs survive these hard times, it has helped them thrive.

Automation is essential for a few reasons:

• Stay competitive. Automation can help combat shrinking reimbursement rates, hospital and managed care budget cuts, and compensate for a diminished labor pool of qualified technicians.


• Increase productivity. Automated equipment can conduct multiple tests at once and often runs for extended periods without rest, providing for faster data collection. It can reduce sample bottlenecking by having a constant supply of samples to test.


• Achieve financial stability, and possibly profitability. Manual testing requires more labour to manage the sample-preparation, testing, and validation processes; it can also introduce variability in results.  Automating testing can help reduce errors, increase reimbursement, and reduce labour costs.


• Improve efficiency and consistency. Automation of diagnostics provides reliable and reproducible tests that manual testing by multiple technicians does not.

Why it`s time to automate your lab?

Linear Motion Solution Summary

Ever wondered how (state of the art) laboratory robots, move from one sample tube to another? No? Then today is your lucky day.

Linear Motion, a technology used by e.g. the Maglev Transrapid in Shanghai, is in use since electronic engines exist. A linear motor is an electric motor with “unrolled” stator and rotor, so that instead of producing a torque (rotation) it produces a linear force. However, linear motors are not necessarily straight. Characteristically, a linear motor’s active section has ends, whereas more conventional motors are arranged as a continuous loop. You can easily accomplish high or low acceleration, as well as a permanent tracking of your position. And this is ecactly why laboratory robot manufacturers use this technologie. Check out following websites, if you want to know more about this topic..

Here is a quick list of linear motor suppliers:

 

https://www.ilt.hsr.ch/Cascad.12760.0.html

http://www.bwc.com/

http://www.motionsolutions.com/

http://www.haydonkerk.com/

http://www.hepcomotion.com/

http://www.pbclinear.com/

http://www.boschrexroth.com/

Linear Motion Solution Summary

Lab Automation Directory released! (beta testing)

Link: Lab Automation Directory

Lab Automation Directory released! (beta testing)

Process Considerations for Clinical Laboratory Automation

As diagnostic lab managers consider implementation of process automation to achieve improved results, there are a number of common factors that can complicate or prevent a successful transition from manual handling/processing. Lab staff often performs “corrective” tasks without formal recognition, resulting in many processing steps being left out of the documented workflow. Engineering an automated process to satisfy the documented workflow may fail to account for these “hidden” process steps. Among the first tasks to be performed in a process improvement/automation program is a detailed workflow study with a specific focus on “casual” process steps.

Human dexterity and sight are extremely sophisticated, and current clinical laboratory automation technology is not yet able to tackle many tasks that are easily performed by the average lab tech. As a result, variability and errors in the materials that flow through the lab are easily and smoothly reconciled in a manual workflow, but may be detrimental to a reliable, efficient automated workflow.

Some examples of material variability commonly found in the clinical lab are:

Labels

• Mispositioned labels


• “Flagged” labels


• Inconsistent print quality


• “Foreign” barcode schema

Tubes

• Multiple tubes banded together


• Parafilm/foil on tubes


• Loose closures

Specimen Quality

• Unspun specimen


• QNS specimen


• Other specimen quality issues (H/I/L)

Design/Dimensional Concerns

• Sample tubes are incompatible with analyzer, process instrument and/or automation


• Tubes and/or racks that do not provide “lead-in” to assure reliable loading/unloading


• Racks with inadequate space between tubes and/or adjacent features


• Racks that do not support tubes in correct, vertical orientation


• Rack features that interfere with smooth tube loading/unloading


• Damaged racks

Many of the above issues are easily recognized and corrected (or filtered out) within the manual workflow. Experienced lab staff can quickly recognize specimen quality issues, compensate for design/dimensional issues, and remove extraneous materials on specimens. Automation must be designed to work reliably at high throughput rates with minimal downtime, so it is important to examine the workflow to uncover the presence of any variables, and to pursue the source of any inconsistencies. Well-designed automation systems will rarely damage non-compliant specimens, nor will the equipment suffer damage when handling materials with one or more of these issues, but process flow may be interrupted and require attention from lab staff to resume operation. Optimal results are obtained when the workflow is refined to assure consistent materials entering the system, and, of course, properly trained and motivated staff to assure effective management and maintenance of the equipment.

Lean workflow will be vastly simpler to achieve when a greater degree of standardization is established in the collection/testing market. Due, in part, to the regulatory oversight and adherence to established methods, adoption of updated technology and processes is extremely slow. Requirements for human-readable patient information on a label impose a great deal of complexity and cost, where a unique barcode (or RFID tag) would reliably identify each tube and eliminate labeling and barcode–related costs and errors. Narrowing the range of tube configurations and sizes will minimize the need for pouring off/aliquoting specimens and simplify automation. IVD manufacturers impose significant cost and complexity on automation equipment (and labs) by requiring use of a proprietary rack in their analyzers.

Recognizing and controlling the sources of variability and non-compliance within lab workflow is key to preparing for successful automation of specimen processing. Well-designed and implemented automation systems will relieve lab staff of routine processing tasks, allowing them to focus on reconciling problems and assuring on-time reporting of results.

By Craig Rubenstein, Life Science Technology Leader

Process Considerations for Clinical Laboratory Automation

9th Peptoid Summit

Earlier this year, Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry got a new suite of robotic synthesis tools called the Overture and the Symphony X (pictured above), automated chemical synthesizers that assemble custom molecular structures called peptoids.

Peptoid nanostructures, pioneered at Berkeley Lab, have molecular shapes similar to biological molecules like proteins, but are made with synthetic building units akin to plastics. Ultimately, peptoids could be used to make enzymes, antibodies, or chemical sensors that are more rugged than those that occur naturally, says Ron Zuckermann, senior scientist and facility director of the Biological Nanostructures Facility User Program at the Molecular Foundry.

The Peptoid Summit is a friendly gathering of students, post-docs, and PI’s investigating new directions in bio-inspired polymer research.  Peptoids are a highly designable polymer system, allowing unprecedented control over the their exact chemical structure.  This is leading to advances in a wide range of fields, ranging from biomedicine to materials science.  Our community is growing and we welcome new investigators.  Come join the discussion and help plan the future of this exciting field!  The Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is proud to host this event.

Date: August 6-7, 2015

Location:  Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.

Organizing Committee:

1. 
   

   ✦Dr. Ronald Zuckermann (Chair), LBNL, rnzuckermann@lbl.gov

   
   


2. 
   

   ✦Prof. Kent Kirshenbaum (Co-chair), NYU, kent@nyu.edu
   

   
   

Featured topics:

1. 
   

   ✦New synthetic methods
   

   
   


2. 
   

   ✦Computation and modeling
   

   
   


3. 
   

   ✦Control of chain conformation
   

   
   


4. 
   

   ✦Combinatorial discovery technologies
   

   
   


5. 
   

   ✦Therapeutic, vaccine and diagnostic applications
   

   
   


6. 
   

   ✦Sequence-defined polymers
   

   
   


7. 
   

   ✦Protein mimetic materials
   

   
   


8. 
   

   ✦Nano/materials science
   

   
   

Technical program:  There will be a day and a half of 20 minute oral presentations in the plenary session, as well as a poster session on Thursday afternoon.  People interested in presenting a talk and/or a poster are asked to submit a title and a brief abstract during the registration process.  The Peptoid Summit is open to anyone who wants to attend.

Fun stuff:  There will be a dinner on Thursday evening (August 6th) following the poster session.  Tours of the Molecular Foundry will be available.  There will also be a BBQ picnic on Friday afternoon at a local park, where the collaborative discussions can continue!

Registration: Registration is OPEN!!

                           Link to secure 9th Peptoid Summit registration site —->

9th Peptoid Summit