SLAS 2019 Americas Sample Management Symposium

The Amgen research environment is distributed around the world with a combination of staff and contract organizations. The Research Materials Management (RMM) organization is the hub in a hub-and-spoke model connecting compound producers with the consuming organizations. Discrete event simulation software was used to model current and proposed RMM processes and the resulting interaction with the downstream functions. In this talk I will discuss the lessons learned in simulation projects ranging from counting minutes in an automation heavy process to modeling the annual cost of outsourcing a specific task.

Co-Author: Julia Dookran, MS,  Engineer, Amgen

BMS R&D IT has developed a ground-breaking solution using BonitaSoft BPM to provide agility, flexibility, and visibility across discovery organization like never before. BMS’s transformation into a BioPharma required an innovative approach to manage lab workflow across discovery organization. Traditional methods of managing lab workflows were rooted in LIMS that required significant and repeated customization to meet the needs of a continuously evolving R&D environment. Implementations of R&D BPM Framework based on BonitaSoft facilitated the digital transformation of analytical chemistry, vet sciences, histology, biologics, lead optimization, biomarkers, and lab equipment management across R&D. Multiple benefits were realized including:

· Time savings of 11,000 hours per year realized by discovery scientists.
· 50% reduction in application delivery time.
· The need for multiple custom solutions were eliminated resulting in cost savings estimated at $2MM.
· Increased transparency into lab processes.
· Access to on-demand live metrics.
· Simplified and consistent application support.

Co-Authors::
Viral, Vyas, MSIS, BMS
Yu-Sun Wang, , BMS

Gene and protein production workflows are essential to the discovery of both small and large molecule therapeutics and a host of other research activities.  In order to keep pace with ever increasing requests to produce, manage and track large numbers of these critical reagents across multiple groups, the need arose to replace manual workflows and siloed informatics systems with a unified, automated request management and fulfillment platform able to be integrated with our registration and sample inventory management systems.  In this talk we will share how, through a highly collaborative effort between scientists and bioinformatics colleagues, we are developing an end-to-end request, workflow, registration and sample management solution which will increasingly enable a more efficient, high-capacity biomolecule discovery and production pipeline.

Sophisticated and often expensive automated solutions exist for a wide variety of laboratory processes in the sample management environment, however there remain many processes for which commercially available products do not exist or do not fully meet the needs of the end user. Fortunately, the rapid evolution of hardware and software tools over the past decade has made development of custom automation much more accessible for laboratory staff. The result of this evolution can be seen in many labs where technologies such as 3D printers and open source electronics platforms have become commonly utilized tools in the day-to-day operations of the lab.

The Lead Identification team at Scripps Florida is one such lab where these tools have been leveraged to address a wide variety of challenges in the Sample Management workspace. Use of these tools has resulted in the development of a number of unique devices including a custom microplate imaging platform, an open-source microplate illuminator and many other things. These have been integrated within our informatics infrastructure in a fashion which has quantitively impacted the efficiency of many processes in the lab by reducing staff workload and improving quality assurance. The advantages of developing in-house automation and lessons learned over a decade of doing so are presented.