2009 will be remembered as a year of up and downs for science. We all, naturally, felt the effects of a down economy in the early part of the year. But based on all the vendors I’ve seen at trade shows in the second half of the year offering their own stimulus packages, things started looking up as we headed into 2010. I think it’s time for some renewed optimism.

Certainly, new stem cell regulations can be seen as a good thing. Shortly after his inauguration, President Obama signed an order that expanded the use of stem cells for government-funded researchers. Combine this with the Obama administration’s emphasis on health care and sciences, and it looks like increased government support (read funding!) will continue in 2010.

H1N1, or swine flu, made a lot of headlines throughout the year. It was declared a pandemic early this past summer. By fall, vaccinations started rolling out—just in time for flu season. It’s still a scary bug and has infected many, but it seems the worst fears have not come true. As we head into winter and peak flu seasons, let’s hope it stays that way.

Bioscience Technology has seen its fair share of events in 2009 as well. We launched our Researcher of the Year competition in May, and awarded it to C. Shad Thaxton for his work in cardiovascular disease. In 2010, we’ll continue this award program. Instructions for entering will be posted shortly on our Web site and in the January issue of Bioscience Technology.

The most useful change to our readers is the newly redesigned Web site. Even if you’ve had the chance to check out the new site, believe me, you haven’t seen anything yet. We’ll soon add even more functionality into the site that will make it even easier to find the tools and technologies you need to accomplish your research goals. The online Buyers' Guide will be updated in 2010, and we’ll be adding tools to help you post your research, solicit comments, and interact with your peers. Some of this is already in place. If you get a chance, check out the community section on www.biosciencetechnology.com and post in our forums.

Keep me posted on how the new year is going for you and your research. I wish you all a happy and successful 2010.

“I have never seen a real robot and know nothing about robotics as a science or technology, even though I invented the word.”

As rejections go, this excerpted rejection from Isaac Asimov to longtime laboratory automation enthusiast Jeff Hurst is pretty interesting. Hurst had personally invited Asimov to be the plenary speaker at the very first conference and exhibition for laboratory automation back in 1997.

Coming full circle some 14 years later, famed Twilight Zone actor and film writer Bruce Sterling has accepted the opportunity to speak – and he is ready to entertain at LabAutomation2010, Jan. 23-27, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, CA, USA.

Of course, the concept of laboratory automation is a bit more established nowadays with more than 4,000 participants from 40 countries gathering in the warm and sunny Palm Springs next month at LabAutomation2010.

Sterling will be joined by three other elite plenary speakers:

- Kei Koizumi, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
- R. Graham Cooks, Henry B. Haas Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry, Purdue University
- Hod Lipson, Associate Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University

All four plenary speakers will be interesting, but I am actually looking forward to Hod Lipson’s presentation on self-aware robots. Check out this video of a robot learning how to walk posted on TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/hod_lipson_builds_self_aware_robots.html

Truth be told, the plenary speakers at LabAutomation2010 are really just the tip of the ice berg. The five-day event offers highly concentrated scientific sessions, short courses, breakfast panels, and posters not to mention the exhibition – which features more than 250 multi-national companies displaying the coolest technology and automation innovation for research and discovery.

The exhibition is free. To register for the scientific sessions, go to: https://www.labautomation.org/LA10/index.cfm.

Be sure to check-out all the smart-savers opportunities. There’s even a $200 flight discount program:
https://www.labautomation.org/LA10/discounts.cfm.

Regards,
Greg Dummer, CAE
ALA Executive Director

I have always been amazed at what benefits animals had for science. Although I still don’t know if I side with people using animals for research; I sure wouldn’t want research to be done on me first; as selfish as that may seem. However, I think I first became interested in the benefits animals provided for science when cloning first came onto the scene. Although the first cloned animal was a tadpole, Dolly was of great interest for me. Now cloning animal genomes has been taken to dogs and horses, and even human genomes are underway.

However, probably the most common animals used within laboratories are mice and rats. I remember I couldn’t read a press release without it talking about the success drugs have had within animal models, which were usually mice/rats. Of course there were the occasional zebrafish models and monkey models, however, mice/rats take the cake. Now, a new rat is being introduced into laboratories around the world for life science studies: introducing the naked mole rat.

These cute, buck teethed, furless rodents have been used in various research studies from pain research, stroke research, cancer research, and aging research.

While being sensitive to touch, hence they have no fur, naked mole rats are insensitive to pain. A research from the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago found that these shrewish rodents lack Substance P, which is a chemical that causes burning sensations for mammals. This makes the rodent insensitive to acid, and numb to foods like chili peppers and lemon juice. The researchers are hoping that this new knowledge, on top of previous studies and knowledge, may lead to new insights into inflammatory pain and inflammatory disease.

These rodents are also being used in cancer research by the Univ. of Rochester. While naked mole rats can live up to 30 years, researchers at the Univ. of Rochester claim that they have never been found with cancerous tumors. In fact, the rodent can never really contract the deadly disease thanks to a gene called p27, which according to the researchers “human and other animals have, and which prevents cells from crowding together,” and a gene called p16. The p16 gene prevents cells from multiplying.

Since cancer can obviously find its way around the p27 gene, since humans and most animals can contract the disease, the p16 gene forms a double barrier for the rodent, allowing it to withstand the disease. These naked mole rats have become a staple in cancer research for this reason in hopes to find answers to genetic questions that one day may suppress the disease for humans.

Also in recent news, these blind creatures hold clues to surviving strokes. It turns out that these adorable, furless rodents’ brain tissue can withstand extreme hypoxia, according to a press release issued by the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, for periods exceeding a half-hour. Studying African naked mole rats that live tight, foul areas underground, John Larson and Thomas Park found the creatures to show systemic hypoxia adaptations, which they believe to be a result of evolutionary adaptations for surviving in a chronically low-oxygen environment. This importance of this study is that these tiny creatures may help these researchers identify the mechanisms that allow longer neuronal survival after such accidents or medical emergencies, which may suggest ways to avoid permanent human brain damage.

All these research studies, plus the fact that naked mole rats live 10 times longer than any other laboratory mice or rat makes them valuable to the field of science.

Pretty cool if you ask me.

- Lindsay Hock, Managing Editor, R&D

B2B Connectivity for Companies Lasered in on Laboratory Technologies: Cutting a Wide Swath Across Multiple Disciplines

How do business and scientific leaders at well-established, large, small and start-up companies find time to connect and explore strategic relationships? It’s difficult at best. Time consuming. And, once due diligence kicks-in, costly. But here’s one solution that efficiently and cost-effectively starts the process – the FREE Biz-Dev Business Development Forum at LabAutomation2010 next month in Palm Springs.

From forensics and food science, to energy research, drug discovery, bioinformatics, quality control and clinical diagnostics – LabAutomation2010 creates real, practical synergistic connections.

LabAutomation2010 is a five-day conference and exhibition attracting more than 4,000 participants from more than 40 countries. The 14th edition of this event is January 23-27 at the Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, CA, USA.

Of the many educational and networking offerings of the event, of particular value to those interested in venture projects or partnerships are the free business-to-business aspects of LabAutomation2010. Some 250 multi-national companies comprise the exhibition. And, as a free service aside from the exhibit hall, LabAutomation2010 offers the opportunity to participate in the Biz-Dev Business Development Forum. Biz-Dev provides a dedicated time and place away from the exhibit floor for companies, suppliers, technology providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to explore business partnerships and collaborations. You can sign-in for free today and see all the C-level executives already participating in program. Go here: http://www.labautomation.org/LA10/bizdev/index.cfm

To learn more about LabAutomation2010, go here: http://www.labautomation.org/LA10/index.cfm

And, finally, according to Leroy Hood, MD, PhD, President, Institute of Systems Biology, LabAutomation2010 is the top science and business meeting kicking off the new year.

“The LabAutomation Conference and Exhibition is a fascinating experience,” says Hood. “It provides a wonderful venue for sharing ideas with scientists and engineers around the world. Laboratory automation is a critical component of high-throughput data measurements of modern biology and medicine. The LabAutomation Community has a unique culture, is an integral component of high-throughput data measurements for genomics, proteomics, and phenotypes and thus provides a crucial foundation for modern biology and medicine.”

And this news just in, ALA has selected eight start-up companies from around the world to participate in its annual Innovation AveNew at LabAutomation2010, to read more about these unique companies from the US, Europe and Asia, go here: https://www.labautomation.org/news/pr112409.pdf

The LabAutomation2010 conference and exhibition is an annual event produced by the Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA); www.labautomation.org

My kindest regards,
Greg Dummer, CAE
ALA Executive Director

No matter in which industry you reside, succeeding in the laboratory today requires effectively applying time, cost, and resources to drive results. Where can you find direct access to information that will personally help you increase productivity, elevate experimental data quality, reduce lab process cycle times, and enable experimentation that otherwise would be impossible? Read on.

From hands-on operations managing real liquid handling robots with fluids of various viscosities and compatibility issues, to learning about the latest advances in proteomics and metabolomics with mass spectrometry in drug discovery—the short courses at LabAutomation2010 will give you a rapid introduction to the topics, issues and techniques related to technology and automation in the laboratory.

LabAutomation2010 will be at the Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, CA, USA, next month January 23-27: http://www.labautomation.org/LA10/index.cfm. Each of the 18 full-day and two-day courses is led by distinguished faculty with deep expertise in their respective topics. The faculty-to-student ratio is typically 15-to-1, giving you exclusive, first-hand education, training and interaction in a highly personal environment. And, as tradition stands, you can save 20 percent on a Sunday short course by purchasing a Saturday course.

So if you desire an intimate classroom setting and wish to learn about automated systems-architectures, failures and complexity; metrics and monitoring; interfaces; automated ID and vision systems, programming automation and managing data: method building; graphical and automatic programming; scheduling; build vs. buy strategies; data analysis systems; LIMS; data transfer and archival; and current trends in laboratory automation technologies – then your best bet is to head to Palm Springs next month.

Greg Dummer, CAE,
ALA Executive Director