Technological transformation is driving change in the modern lab as Cloud-based systems, automation and improved analytics open up a range of new possibilities, explain Dave Levy and David Gosalvez.
The life sciences and pharmaceutical industries have been markedly slower to adopt digital technology than other markets. In this highly regulated sector, compliant change management was perceived to come at a prohibitive cost of time and resources that led to a blanket acceptance of existing practices.
Advancing technology introduced by industry experts is disrupting the status quo, heralding a new model of the modern lab. This is an exciting time for the industry: as science continues to generate experimental data at an unprecedented rate, there is real ambition to change the outdated legacy technologies and bring in new, Cloud-based, automated data management practices to provide the robust analytics that accelerate evidence-based scientific discovery.
A new partnership between PerkinElmer Informatics and iPaaS scientific integration platform provider Scitara offers a force for change, providing unprecedented levels of connectivity, automation and monitoring.
The next step lies in how to make laboratory management more efficient. We have a clear focus on improving data mobility across the lab
What does the new model of the modern lab look like?
We have seen a recent and significant sea change in the last two to three years. Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) are seeing huge take-up as the industry embraces the validity, flexibility and security of Cloud technology. The next step lies in how to make laboratory management more efficient. We have a clear focus on improving data mobility across the lab. The goal is to enable the free flow of information between multiple points, to remove the disconnect between the variety of scientific instrumentation and informatics platforms such as ELNs and laboratory information management systems (LIMS), and to allow data to be gathered, integrated, curated and retrieved.
The collaboration between PerkinElmer Informatics and Scitara sets out to provide seamless data and workflow management with all laboratory instruments and resources connected via Scitara DLX, part of the Scitara Scientific Integration Platform SIP.
The SIP offers a connectivity backplane in an open architecture, offering automated workflow management and the ability to build other applications to modernise the laboratory environment.
What does the collaboration mean for customers?
The challenge has long been that integration tools are custom-built and system- and vendor-specific. To create a connected lab, the only way forward is to build a comprehensive platform that can integrate every instrument, resource and app throughout the lab.
We can now marry the best of both worlds: a platform like the PerkinElmer Informatics’ Signals Research Suite that can interconnect multiple components of the lab ecosystem, combined with the SIP infrastructure that delivers configurable access to a wide range of informatics and instruments – even traditionally non-computerised instruments like balances and pH meters – to feed the Signals Notebook ELN. This Cloud technology lowers the barriers to adoption and provides the automated data flow that drives the lab to the next level of productivity.
The agile integration framework adapts to changing work demands, facilitating on-the-fly workflow reconfiguration, rapid instrumentation deployment and best-of-breed informatics systems.
For the laboratory, data that is available at the right time, in the right place and, critically, in the right format is a transformational change. Establishing lab workflows quickly, out of the box, and setting the business rules that determine how data flows make it easier to use the growing amount of data generated to find answers to scientific questions.
What does success look like?
By breaking the cycle of technical debt that effectively holds users to ransom with their monolithic lab technology, which becomes obsolete almost as soon as it is built, verified, and deployed, we are freeing up scientists to focus on the science rather than data management. With the SIP integrated into the Signals platform, data integrity, data mobility, system flexibility and user reconfigurability all come as standard – opening up a new landscape of possibility. This allows labs using the Signals platform with SIP to realise the full benefits of digital transformation.
The widespread acceptance of Cloud technology is benefiting the whole sector. There is wholesale support from the top down to make the move to Cloud
For example, scientists wanting to make and share notes in an ELN or in their experimental systems have provided the gateway into the integration landscape. Scitara is currently undertaking a pilot with a customer who has Signals Notebook already deployed, to allow the SIP to address a range of issues in the laboratory ecosystem, from balances on the bench to PC based- systems. For years, our customers have been dealing with the disconnect between these different systems. The many-to-many connected infrastructure removes these issues.
What are the benefits for life sciences?
The widespread acceptance of Cloud technology is benefiting the whole sector. There is wholesale support from the top down to make the move to Cloud, to help solve the industry’s most challenging problems. Engaging with day-to-day users of the multiple systems, who have sought a more joined-up solution, has been educational.
With Cloud technology, system build is extremely fast – so the IT deployment burden is considerably reduced. In Cloud deployment, there is a layering effect – installation becomes a cumulative process and, as more workflows are added, a broader value set is created, where the system becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Formerly, working with a huge range of different software packages and different software versions led to system fragility. The SIP provides a single version for all customers in a stable and predictable system that is not limited by customised, single-build integrations, paving the way to advanced scientific discovery and, ultimately, accelerating science.
What of the future?
The growing pressure on the pharmaceutical and biopharma industries to bring new drugs to market faster and more cost-effectively is creating an increased demand for new technology that can support these goals, in systems where analytics, asset management and data archival come as standard.
We will see specifics such as voice-operated instruments become more commonplace. Thinking more broadly, artificial intelligence (AI) will become a real part of the lab infrastructure. The AI promise is based on high-quality data feeding the data lake. Once the Cloud infrastructure is in place, the next big opportunity will be to set up universal integrations and route quality, context-rich data into the lakes to allow AI to play its role.
It is important to see technology as an enabler. Experience, judgement and even intuition will always come into play – but the supporting technology infrastructure is set to transform the lab.
Dave Levy is Head of Strategy & Partnerships at Scitara
David Gosalvez is Executive Director, Science & Technology at PerkinElmer Informatics
