SLAS opens with 409 exhibitors and 6,700 attendees

According to Markets & Markets, the global market for laboratory automation is set for significant growth. The market researchers estimate that the market will grow from US$5.85bn in 2024 to US$7.71bn in 2029. Added to this is the global market for drug discovery services. Its turnover is expected to double from the current US$20.7bn  (2024) to US$41.4bn in 2028. At SLAS 2025 International, which will feature more than 150 lectures in eight thematic streams, start-ups, laboratory giants, biopharmaceutical developers, headhunters, AI service providers and preclinical contract research organisations (CROs) will meet to discuss the latest technological advances and find new partners. The focus is on minimising human error in R&D projects through automation, Big data-based AI algorithms, reducing preclinical error rates and decreasing time to market while increasing R&D productivity with the help of automated sorting, screening and analysis of authentic preclinical models such as 3D organoids, optimised screening campaigns and new protocols.

Jill Hronek, Head Marketing & Communications of the conference organiser, the Society for Laboratory Automation & Screening (SLAS), expects “409 exhibitors and 6,700 pre-registered attendees in San Diego this year”. Ten of the 99 new products  launched at SLAS are nominated for the SLAS New Product Award, which recognises three products with outstanding impact on the industry. Along with the winner of the Ignite Award for Best Start-up in Lab Automation, the best products will be announced on Tuesday at 5:00-5:30 p.m. in the Ignite Theater.

Today: view six of eight finalists

Pitches on Monday include those of Italian InSimili, US companies CytoRecovery Inc, Intero Biosystems Inc, South-Korean Meteor Biotech Co Ltd, German PHIO Scientific GmbH, and British Cryologyx Ltd. On Tuesday, presentations of Seattle-based Axor Biosystems Inc and Swiss Visienco SA will follow.

Prof. Stefania Rapino‘s spin out from the University of Bologna, InSimili srl, will present so-called Oxygen Control Plates that mimic hypoxic conditions found in solid tumours, enabling the screening of tumour models under more realistic physiological conditions (5% oxygen saturation) than achieved with available hypoxic hoods, which made global revenues of US$80m in 2024. According to CEO Enrico Grassilli, “InSimili has developed a patented biomaterial that transforms standard cell culture plates into tools capable of simulating the physiological microenvironment of human tissues in vitro. This technology can accurately recreate physiological and pathological levels of oxygen, glucose, and pH concentrations directly in each well”, he said. The plates, which are coated with a patent-protected polymeric gel containing oxygen-consuming and -detoxifying enzymes such as glucose oxidase and catalase, enable researchers to conduct screenings under realistic conditions. “InSimili provides the most specially accurate chemical microenvironment in a standard dish”, Grassilli told European Biotechnology Magazine. He is convinced that the more precise conditions for preclinical tests will improve the success rate in predicting safety and efficacy of drug candidates under microscale conditions, whether in high-throughput screening or organoid screening. On average there is a preclinical to clinical transition rate of 5-10% for small molecules, of 10% for monoclonal antibodies and of 15% for antibody-drug conjugates. InSimili’s plates are available in various configurations and are compatible with standard laboratory protocols.

Dr. Alex Hyler, CSO of CytoRecovery Inc., presented the seven-year-old start-up’s label-free CytoR1 platform for cell sorting, which is a more cell-sparing alternative to the marker-based FACS and MACS gold standard methods. FACS is an excellent option for sorting with high sensitivity and purity. FACS is a particularly safe option for sensitive cell types. The CytoR1 platform is based on the fact that cells inherently have unique electrical signatures that represent and change with their morphology. By applying an electric field gradient across the company’s CytoChip, cells in suspension are separated based on their individual electrical signatures. The phenomenon utilised by the CytoR1 platform causes the desired cells to migrate to specific areas of the chip. While the desired cells remain in the designated areas of the CytoChip, unwanted cells do not respond to the applied electric field and continue to flow through the chip to be collected as waste. Once the unwanted cells are removed from the sample channel, the electric field can be switched off and the previously captured desired cells are released to be collected at the outlet of the device. CytoRecovery’s solution ensures native cell behaviour without labelling errors in downstream culture, analysis and use in biomedical research, including single-cell genomic analysis, growth curves, CAR-T cell therapies, drug dosing tests or other personalised medicine applications.

Intero Biosystems Inc, a spin-out company from the University of Michigan, has developed the world‘s only spatially organised stem-cell derived intestinal organoid that outperforms alternatives such as organ-on-chips, 3D patient-derived organoids and 2D epithelial layers by mimicking all relevant characteristics of the human intestine at a significantly lower price than animal models. Dubbed GastroScreen the scalable lab-grown human organ model accurately mimics human physiology, providing drug developers with a precise, cost-effective and ethical solution for predicting intestine-based drug safety and efficacy, according to co-founder and CEO Charlie Childs. While organoids provide miniature models of human organs that recapitulate the organ’s structure and function in a dish, they are not capable to model cardiovascular or systemic effects. However, compared to animal models that rarely reflect human physiology, GastroScreen can  be a great help in minimising failure in preclinical drug screening campaigns.

Led by Chief Technology Officer Dr. Sumin Lee and her team, South-Korean Meteor Biotech Co. Ltd has developed an automated cell sorting platform named CosmoSort that relies on SLACS, spatially resolved laser-activated cell sorting. Following staining and AI-directed image analysis, SLACS provides seamless integration to downstram high-throughput (1 target per second), high-precision, multi-omics applications while preserving the spatial integrity, that is the spatial arrangement and molecular characteristics of cells within tissues. SLACS combines classical laser-based cell isolation with AI-supported image analysis. The platform allows rapid isolation of cell regions of interest from FFPE and frozen tissue samples without requiring dissociation. Downstream applications include RNAseq, DNA and proteome analyses, cancer biomarker identification and structural analyses of the tumour architecture.

German PHIO Scientific GmbH’s CEO and founder Philipp Paulitschke will present what he called a solution to two major challenges in cell-based toxicological and drug response assays: the lack of real-time monitoring and the dependence on reproducibility of the quality and condition of the cells used. The University of Munich spin out has developed  a lens-free imaging method, the compact Cellwatcher, that allows automatic label-free real-time cell and organoid monitoring inside the incubator. An integrated cloud-based AI platform called PHIOme allows the monitoring of cell culture parameters such as confluence, proliferation and motility.

Last spring, the British company CryoLogyx Ltd (Coventry) was honoured at SLAS Europe (Barcelona, see report p. 24) with the SLAS New Product Award for the product development with the greatest transformational potential in the field of automation. This time, the team around co-founder and CEO Tom Congdon competes for the Ignite Award, i.e. the prize for the most innovative start-up with a business focus on lab automation & drug discovery. The company, which was spun out of the University of Warwick in 2021, focuses on improving the normally low viability of cryopreserved cells after thawing (<35%) using its macromolecular cryoprotective agents  grouped under the brand CryoShield™ and frozen microtitre plates coated with adherent cells that are ready for measurement within 24 hours. In several peer-reviewed publications, the company has reported over 80% viability, and proliferation behaviour and cell integrity similar to non-frozen control cells. In addition, the company offers services for the deep freezing of adherent and soluble cells. "Our PlateReady products enable a fundamental change in the way cell biology and cell-based assays are approached in the laboratory", says Congdon. All finalists of the SLAS Ignite Award 2025 will be judged by a SLAS panel on a combination of key concepts, including their marketing plan, market presence and potential, funding prospects, plan for growth and the existence of balanced company leadership for a chance to win US$5,000.

Watch out! Deadline

The application deadline for the SLAS Europe (20–22 May 2025, Hamburg, Germany) Ignite Award is approaching. Under the Innovation AveNEW for Startups programme, automation specialists can get access to a global life sciences research community with the power to recommend or purchase new technology through the SLAS newsletter send out to all  SLAS members. Additionally, an AveNEW booth in Hamburg secures networking to more than 1,000 prospective customers. Selected companies will receive a complimentary exhibition kiosk, exclusive visibility opportunities while on site, waived conference registration fees, travel, hotel accommodations and more. Applications are due Monday, 24 February 2025.

Starting this year, European Biotechnology Magazine is the official European media partner of  the SLAS. For a free sample copy, please click here. For free subscription of our weekly newsletter, please provide your email address here. To learn more about the quarterly special features about automation in collaboration with SLAS please click here or contact us at marketing@biocom.de.