At Biosero, we like to think of our customers as long-term partners, not as scientists doing a one-time search for an automation solution. We like to work collaboratively with our clients toward a shared vision: doing great science and generating meaningful results. Together, we create the best approach to meet their goals.
Our collaboration with Roche is a good example of what partnering with Biosero looks like in practice. At the SLAS2022 lab automation conference held earlier this year, automation expert Roman Affentranger described how Roche’s Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) group selected Biosero to help them think holistically about designing a more connected automation system to address their fragmented lead discovery infrastructure.
During his presentation, Affentranger highlighted some of the challenges with his team’s existing lab infrastructure. Because of a planned move to a new building scheduled for 2024, the pRED group delayed key system updates, making it slow, cumbersome, and difficult to use. The team has accumulated a variety of disconnected software tools and devices that communicate poorly and are far too complicated to use. Scientists often work in silos using inefficient processes that waste time and resources.
Instead of going out and buying a new system, Affentranger and his team stepped back and took the time to re-evaluate their current infrastructure and think about what they really needed from a system that could support them now and in the future. That meant looking across their entire lead discovery workflow and identifying points of integration between individual lab devices as well as interactions between people in the group. They also had to consider the flow of data in the lab as well as scheduling and orchestration of experiments.
For pRED, the ideal infrastructure would support increased collaboration and effectively integrate and automate entire workflows. They aimed to minimize their use of consumables and maximize the use of their devices and systems. The team also wanted sophisticated orchestration and scheduling capabilities that would allow their scientists to manage batches of samples and plates running simultaneously in the lab.
Ultimately, they realized they were looking for a partner that could work with them to create a single, unified ecosystem that connected people, devices, and data. This is Biosero’s sweet spot. The pRED team selected us as their automation implementation partner because of our attention to the user experience. As collaborators, we share strategic leadership and program oversight responsibilities with the pRED team. Both teams have clearly defined roles that are assigned based on our respective areas of expertise.
The Roche scientists also chose our Green Button Go® software suite as the operating system for their new installation because of our scheduling and orchestration capabilities, open and scalable architecture, and our standardized approach to device integration.
In his presentation, Affentranger highlighted some of the key benefits of our partnership model:
- All the needed capabilities are provided by people who are experts in those areas
- The approach ensures a broad level of engagement and commitment
- Individual teams across the assay value chain work together collaboratively
Together we have designed a platform that we are confident can support pRED’s lead discovery portfolio now and in the future, and we will be rolling it out in two phases over the next two years.