CABTalks by Synthace – Details, episodes & analysis

Emilie Fritsch, Principal Scientist at Syngenta, joins Fane to talk about her journey from scientist to lab automation specialist. As her career evolved, so did her understanding of the automation needs of science. She went from molecular biology to the perfect blend of science and automation learning the best of both worlds to shape better science.

The podcast is filled with nuggets of wisdom to take away, here’s what you can expect:

• (3:00 mins) Being thrown into the deep end of lab automation
• (7:30 mins) Three users of new technology: early adopters, watchers and skeptics
• (11:40 mins) Communicate reassurance. Look after those that are resisting new technologies and they will become your champions
• (14:11 mins) The “Eureka” moment of a skeptic adopting new technology feels really good
• (15:43 mins) The key learning from automation: not one size fits all
• (21:43 mins) Understand your problem so you know when to use automation
• (23:05 mins) Biologists need to spend less time pipetting and more time on the things they’re good at: the science
• (27:50 mins) Scientists need to be good communicators to thrive in a diverse environment filled with opportunities and challenges
• (31:43 mins)  Women can become lab automation specialists, your study doesn’t define your scientific future

Listen to the podcast to follow the conversation. If you have questions about this podcast - hello@synthace.com is only an email away

Mario Antonio Torres Acosta,Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL, joins us to talk about his lab automation journey as an academic, specifically teaching others how to use lab automation.

There’s plenty to cover in this episode, but you can look forward to hearing about:

• The shift to lab automation post-pandemic (5:25 mins)
• Automation and expertize is fluid, so should be the approach to adopting it and to think in the long term (11:30 mins to 16:21mins)
• Commitment is a big barrier to adopting lab automation (21:19 mins)
• Assessing how comfortable a person is with automation is to say nothing, see what they do and use this as a measure for your adoption (25:59 mins)
• Addressing the automation skills shortage in life sciences starts in academia (32:50 mins)

Mario and Fane delve into the deep nitty-gritty of automation in an academic setting with lessons that apply to those on their automation journey.

Listen to the podcast to follow the conversation. If you have questions about this podcast - hello@synthace.com is only an email away!

Alexandre Super is a Data Scientist in upstream process sciences at UCB, a global biopharma company focusing on neurology and immunology. 

In this episode of CABTalks by Synthace, Alexandre and Fane discuss bioprocessing and data management. What are the challenges in moving from R&D to a scaled-up process? And how are Computer-Aided Biology tools helping tackle bioprocesses’ biggest challenge of all: capturing high-quality data. 

Listen in to learn how Automation, Miniaturization, and Digitalization play key roles in 21st Century bioprocessing.

Jesse Johnson is head of Data Science and Data Engineering at Dewpoint Therapeutics, an R&D-stage biotech startup, and the author of the Scaling Biotech blog where he pursues his goal to find ways to scale biotech research platforms through better software and organizational design.

In this episode of CAB Talk, we discuss Jesse's framework for scaling biotech, explore the three big trade-offs of Cost vs Reliability, Immediacy vs Generality, and Flexibility vs Consistency, and touch on how we can better communicate the need for computer-aided biology.

FYI - the book Jesse mentions is Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study by Sabina Leonelli

With advancements in artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies, there are a growing number of solutions in Computer-Aided Biology. But what exactly are the problems? We speak with Dr Mike Fero, the former CEO and current COO of TeselaGen - one of the first big AI companies in the Computer-Aided Biology, on the problems facing scientists and how CAB companies should be articulating that problem. We also chat about Mike's journey from Physics into Computer-Aided Biology, the challenges facing CAB companies and CEOs today, as well as his personal challenge of balancing work with life and providing "wraparound care" for his grandchild.

Biology is a notoriously difficult research area, especially for replicating results. To paraphrase from a film that has inspired thousands of people to get into this field: life finds a way (of behaving unexpectedly). Because everything is so interconnected in biology, the one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) approach is usually taken to investigate biological systems. But what if there were a better way to gain insights into the holistic nature of biology and explore the interconnectedness of various factors while maintaining scientific accuracy? Well there is, it’s called Design of Experiments (DOE).

When we say DOE we are talking about a branch of applied statistics that can be applied to experimental design to explore the relationships between factors in an experiment as well as the effect of the factors themselves. Compared to other experimental approaches, such as the OFAT approach, DOE can save time and resources in performing experiments while providing deeper insights.

In CABTalk this month, EngD student Shama Chilakwad explains how her studies are entirely based on exploring the possibilities of DOE in studying transaminases.

Research in life science is changing fast. The skillsets of scientists can barely keep up with the changing technology, demanding new and better knowledge of statistics, programming, experimental design as well as a plethora of new automation tools. So what will the lab and, more importantly, the researcher of the future look like? We asked Dr Melissa Sterry, who is a Design Scientist, Systems Theorist and Futurist, to help us imagine the future of research.

#ComputerAidedBiology #Automation #Software #SyntheticBiology #SciencePodcast

Cloud computing is helping revolutionize the personalized healthcare space with 21st century Computer-Aided Biology tools. Next generation sequencing technologies capable of generating more data than ever before, the storage, processing and analysis of that data is more than a single machine can handle. Enter the cloud. In this episode we talk with Jo Bhakdi, CEO of Quantgene, a company bringing the power of next generation deep sequencing to liquid biopsies to search for early signs of cancer. He tells us how the cloud plays a critical role in managing all that data and how their technology aims to increase the human life span by a decade within a decade.

Quantgene are working with Serenity, a system which utilizes Quantgene's liquid biopsy and AI, and has turned it into a customer-facing product. For US customers who are interested in liquid biopsy for early cancer signal detection and whole exome sequencing, and who want to incorporate the Serenity system into a preventative health plan, visit www.chooseserenity.com and use the discount code CAB15 for 15% off at checkout.

Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines! That is all we hear about these days. But how do they work in the body? And how is the world of vaccine development changing with new Computer-Aided Biology tools? We talk to Assistant Professor Bruno Correia at EPFL in Switzerland about the challenges facing vaccines and his research on protein engineering and design. 

Intellectual Property has a funny relationship with research and innovation. Sara Holland is a patent attorney at Potter Clarkson and expert in Synthetic Biology IP. She talks us through the steps in identifying if your research could be protected, what goes into making a patent, and dispels the rumors around publishing vs patenting - you can have it all!