A quick summary of thoughts from Fred Bost, LabVoice CEO & Co-Founder, on the recent expo in Boston.
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Bio-IT World 2024 in Boston, and I left feeling inspired and motivated by the cutting-edge advancements in our industry. The conference was a hub of activity, with experts from pharma, biotech, and IT coming together to share their experiences and shape the future of lab informatics.
One of the highlights of the conference was the well-deserved recognition of Regeneron, who took home the Innovative Practices Award for their pioneering work with LabVoice's digital assistants in their vivarium. Their innovative approach to solving the long-standing challenge of digitizing scientific information in lab environments is a testament to the power of collaboration between scientists and IT engineers.
Regeneron's success story is a shining example of how technology can transform the way we work in labs. By implementing LabVoice’s digital assistants, they have effectively captured over 174,000 data points, both automated and manual, and created custom analytics dashboards that provide live, actionable insights. This hands-free data capture has not only improved data quality and searchability but also freed up their research scientists & technicians to focus on what they do best – driving innovation and discovery.
Another theme that emerged during the conference was the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs)Â in pharma and biotech companies. Many presenters shared their experiences of building LLMs and chatbots to support their scientists. While LLMs excel in knowledge management, content creation, and language translation, they fall short in facilitating and aiding in most lab-based activities. This highlights the need for a more comprehensive solution that can seamlessly integrate with existing lab systems.
Speaking of integration, strengthening integrations & interoperability among lab software, instruments, and other systems was a recurring topic throughout the conference. It's clear that the future of lab informatics lies in seamless communication between diverse tools and platforms, not a one-platform-for-all approach.
Orchestrating how research data is created, captured, and analyzed will build the most agile and dynamic research teams. Interoperability is crucial for breaking down the silos of outdated, closed systems and unlocking efficiency and collaboration in pharma and biotech labs.
As I reflect on my time at Bio-IT World 2024, I'm excited to see how these advancements will shape the future of lab informatics and drive meaningful breakthroughs in our industry.