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General Info

We are happy to invite you to our annual LRIG New England 2017 Fall Seminars and Exhibition which is being held at the Boston Marriott Cambridge Hotel. This is a free event to our members where you can visit our seminars and exhibition floor and talk to our participating speakers and exhibitors. There are also free workshops provided by some of exhibitors where current issues and topics are discussed.  There are 70 exhibitor spots available.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages are provided for free to all members and exhibitors during this event. For those interested in purchasing alcoholic beverages a bartender is available to provide you this service for a fee. 

There are multiple parking options available including two parking garages within a block and street parking is available where appropriate. We do not validate parking for this event. 

The Grand Ballroom is located on the 2nd floor of the hotel. It can be accessed using the escalator or the elevator. The Discovery and Endeavor meeting rooms are located on the 3rd floor. There is a stairwell just outside the Grand Ballroom which will lead directly to the meeting rooms. The elevator will also access the 3rd floor meeting rooms from the 2nd floor. 

The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) will be offering a raffle for one full conference registration to their 2018 meeting valued at $1,200. Don't miss your chance to win!

Workshop Schedule

Exhibitor List

Active Motif
Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc.
Agilent Technologies, Inc.
Andrew Alliance
Artel
Axis New England
BMG Labtech
Beckman Coulter
BioMicroLab, Inc.
BioNex Solutions
BioTek Instruments, Inc
Biodirect, Inc.
BlueCatBio
BrandTech Scientific, Inc.
Brooks Life Science Systems
Chemspeed Technologies
Codex BioSolutions iNc
Computype
Corning
Digilab, Inc.
Dynamic Devices
Eppendorf
Festo Corp
Formulatrix
Frontier Scientific
Genedata
Gibson Engineering
Grenova, LLC
HNP Mikrosysteme
Hamilton
HighRes BioSolutions
Hudson Robotics, Inc.
INTEGRA Biosciences
LGC Genomics
Lab Owl/Automated Control Concepts, Inc.
Labcyte Inc.
Liconic
Micronic
PAA Automation
Pall ForteBio
PerkinElmer
Phenix Research Products
SCIENION U.S., Inc
SLAS
Sirius Automation Inc.
StackWave
TTE Laboratories/Avidien Technologies
TTP Labtech
Tecan US
Thermo Lab Automation
Titian Software
Unchained Labs

Workshop Abstracts 

Hamilton, Bill Brewer, DPX Technologies

New Tip-On-Tip Applications for Rapid Blood Crash, Filtration and Novel SPE

Hamilton Robotics and DPX Technologies believe sample preparation should be fast and easy!  Based on an innovative, patented technology, DPX has incorporated the benefits of solid-phase extraction (SPE) into a simple-to-use pipette tip with numerous applications in a variety of analyte/matrix combinations including Vitamin D, steroids, catecholamines, EtG/EtS, and comprehensive therapeutic and abused drugs in serum, blood, urine and oral fluid. Our latest innovation is a patent-pending Tip-On-Tip technology. The Tip-On-Tip is designed to streamline protein precipitation on automated platforms to eliminate cumbersome vortex and centrifugation processes.

Active Motif, John M. Rosenfeld, Ph.D., Strategic Marketing Director, Active Motif Inc

Applied Epigenetics:  Tools for high throughput sample preparation and assay development

Progress in the research field of epigenetics has fueled a need for improved capabilities in the applied epigenetics space. In particular, a need has emerged to facilitate preparation of both

chromatin and DNA samples in higher sample volume formats. Active Motif is working to solve an array of problems or bottlenecks and provide value to our customers through our technology and product development efforts.  One bottleneck is that of high throughput chromatin preparation, and we are developing a 96 well sonicator system named PIXUL™ to accomplish this goal.  Another bottleneck is epigenetic antibody quality.  To this end, we have established a pipeline process for the conversion of antibodies isolated from monoclonal hybridomas to a recombinant format (named AbFlex® antibodies) that is engineered to enable facile assay development by using enzymes of the Sortase family of transpeptidases. The resulting recombinant antibodies can be easily labeled with a variety of conjugate payloads for a broad range of application needs. Results from these ongoing efforts will be presented.

Corning, Mark Rothenberg Ph.D, Manager Scientific Training and Education

Tips and Tricks to Help Develop and Run Microplate-based Assays

Today’s scientists rely heavily on both biochemical and cell-based in vitro assays, in their research. Critical parameters for achieving success with these assays include understanding the assay dynamics, the instrumentation involved in reading the assay, and, in the case of cell-based assays, understanding how the environment in which the cells are grown impacts cellular physiology. Factors such as microplate geometry, density, surfaces, and instrumentation all play important roles in the success of the assay. In this seminar, we will discuss ways to enhance your assay performance. Topics to be discussed include: 1)  Microplate selection and instrument compatibility in the success of the assay.  2)A discussion on surfaces, choosing the correct option to meet the needs of the assay

BrandTech Scientific, Stephanie Franco, PhD., Technical Product Manager – Life Science 

Optimizing Automated Liquid Handling Protocols with the BRAND LHS Software

Designing a liquid handling protocol for automation for the most efficient use of time and materials can be tedious, with a lot of trial and error.  BRAND’s new, compact Liquid Handling Station (LHS) features extremely user-friendly software that not only makes initial protocol design easy, but simplifies the optimization process.  Easy drag-and-drop rearrangement of the instrument deck and a 3D simulation model allows quick determination of the best layout and process verification.  A “shopping list” of materials quickly lets you know if materials are being wasted before a single drop of liquid is moved.  Combined with BRAND’s decades of robotics experience, transitioning to liquid handling automation is attainable for anyone.

Chemspeed Technologies, Ed Halpin - General Manager

Unlock your Compound Management for Screening and Revolutionize Liquid and Powder Handling in your Labs

The pharmaceutical industry faces increased demand for innovative medicines against various diseases. In drug discovery, the compound library is the most valuable asset. Typically the compound from the library is still transferred manually to the screening plates and dissolved. This binds highly qualified resources to very time-consuming, tedious and error-prone tasks.

To overcome these challenges, Chemspeed launched the first automated true one-to-one gravimetric “pick and decision dispense” of virtually any compound (SWILE and SWIP) – unlocking your compound management.

Key features are:
• Fully automated gravimetric pick & decision dispense from almost any source into any destination
• Dispensing range from < 100 μg to 100 mg with +- 10 μg resolution
• Revolutionary accuracy & precision due to decision dispensing
• Disposable tips
• No cross-contamination
• A recovery rate equal or higher than in manual procedures
• Modular combination with additional tools like liquid handling, shaking and heating, for e.g. dissolution
• Unattended operation (with optional inert atmosphere)
• Boost in your discovery process and time to market

We will also explore complimentary technologies for powder and viscous liquid handling on the same automation platform.

Festo - Dr. Bengt Wunderlich, Fluidics Project Engineer, Festo AG & Co, KG

Achieving Fast, Economical, and Precise Results with Low Pressure Dispensing

Pressure-driven dispensing offers a fast, economical, and precise method for high speed dispensing of a wide range of liquids at a wide range of volumes, from nanoliters to milliliters. This workshop will present research conducted by Festo to quantify the accessible volume range of  pressure-driven dispensing systems as well as their repeatability, both for single-channel as well as multi-channel dispense heads. Along with the performance in a wide pressure range we will additionally present means to improve tip-to-tip performance of Festo´s multi-channel dispense heads. We will introduce a new range of modular dosing heads and other products developed by Festo to make pressure-driven liquid handling systems easier to design and commission.

Dynamic Devices

96VVP (Volume Verified Pipetting) Technology and real life use cases

Our discussion will feature the Dynamic Devices’ Lynx and its implementation of the 96VVP pipetting technology. The 96VVP is a novel 96 pipet head that incorporates individual pressure sensors, micro-valves and a pressure controller to facilitate accurate and precise liquid transfers.  The integrated pressure sensors allow for real time measurement of physical conditions to provide us with the flow rate in each pipet tip. It features 96 iLLD (96 individually addressable liquid level detection) and RT (real time) aspirate and dispense volume measurement via flow rate. We will highlight several use cases that include quantitative volume measurement in 2D Matrix tube racks using pressure based LLD, real time clot detection and correction in difficult sample matrices and normalization of samples (DNA, RNA, cells, etc.) to highlight individual volume control of each channel within a multichannel (24 or 96) pipet head.