Laboratory Robotics Interest Group April Meeeting

[Andy Zaayenga]

The Laboratory Robotics Interest Group

April 1998 Meeting
Information Strategies

Date: Wednesday, April 22, 1998
Place: Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Corporation, Raritan, NJ
Itinerary:
Social Period & Refreshments, Lobby - 5:00 to 6:30 PM
Presentations and Discussion, Auditorium - 6:30 to 9:15 PM
Pre-Registration: Requested, not required.  Registering will allow us to
more accurately gauge seating requirements and refreshment needs.  Indicate
names of attendees and company affiliation.
mailto:zaayenga at lab-robotics.org
Phone: (732)302-1038
Fax: (732)302-9080

Agenda:  Data management and instrument control are two components of
Information Strategies which are critical to  automation.   This meeting
will address these issues in succinct presentations designed to portray
successful approaches.  The Social Period will feature deli platters and
beverages courtesy of the sponsors.  Members interested in presenting a
poster during the Social Period are encouraged to do so.  Following the
presentations there will be a open forum panel discussion.  Open career
positions at your company may be announced or posted.  There is no fee to
attend the meeting.
_____________________________________

Presentation:  A novel object-relational database for chemical and
biological data management
John Cargill
Associate Director, Information Systems
Ontogen Corporation

This talk describes recent unpublished work carried out at Ontogen
Corporation and Daylight Chemical Information Systems in the design and
implementation of a novel object-relational database for chemical and
biological data management. Until now chemical data has been stored in
proprietary databases and biological data has been stored in relational
database management systems (RDBMS). Our work integrates a molecule
data-type into a relational database. This innovation unites chemical and
biological data management into a single universal database. In this
universal database all chemical information storage, searching and retrieval
is handled using a standard Structured Query Language (SQL-92) defined by
the International Standards Organization (ISO). Performance optimizations
provide structure searching at speeds consistent with the fastest
proprietary databases. As a result of this work it is now possible to
simplify and standardize the management of pharmaceutical
data.
_____________________________________

Presentation:  My Instrument: A Proposal for a Standardized Software
Interface to Analytical Instrumentation
James Duckworth
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Galactic Industries Corp.

Good software is clearly an indispensable part of sophisticated analytical
instruments. However, due to a lack of standards in the industry, each
manufacturer and instrument supplier has developed their own, unique
software packages to interface with today's popular Windows-based computers.
While this is fine when the instrument is used in the capacity the
manufacturer envisioned, it requires substantial amounts of new code
development to build customized and automated solutions around a given piece
of instrumentation. In addition, the ever evolving software technology base
and lack of standards forces the vendors to develop new software for nearly
every new piece of instrumentation. This talk will focus on a proposed
standard programming interface for instrumentation called "My Instrument".
Using Microsoft's ActiveX component design, this proposal will someday make
connecting a piece of scientific instrumentation to any software package as
easy as using a printer is today.
_____________________________________

Presentation:  Dynamic Queries: an Interactive Approach to Data
Visualization in Drug Discovery
Christopher Ahlberg, PhD
CEO and Founder 
Spotfire, Inc.

Interactive data visualization brings a solution to the data explosion
caused by high throughput instrumentation technologies, genomic databases,
and lead repositories. Spotfire, a visual environment for data exploration,
is based on research at the University of Maryland and Chalmers University,
and provide large users groups in drug discovery with capabilities for
speeding up data analysis and avoiding gross early errors. The presentation
will include a live demonstration.
_____________________________________

Presentation:  Chemically-Intelligent Control for Combinatorial Chemistry
Instruments
David Chapman
President 
Afferent Systems Inc.

Afferent Synthesis completely eliminates robot programming, by working from
an abstract description of the chemistry involved in making the library. The
system is device-independent; with a suitable driver, it can be used with
any synthetic instrument. Afferent Synthesis makes it possible to interleave
the synthesis of several libraries, or several batches of reaction vessels
from a single large library, eliminating incubation "dead time" and
dramatically increasing throughput. It also provides robustness by
implementing synthesis error recovery and task restart, and a protocol
optimization module lets you systematically vary conditions to find best
conditions for a reaction. When coupled with Afferent Structure, the system
automatically generates chemical product structures, and tracks their
locations.
_____________________________________

Presentation:
Dr. Keith Taylor
MDL Information Systems
_____________________________________

Presentation:  
EMAX Solution Partners
_____________________________________

Presentation:  
Michael Schwartz
Oxford Molecular Group
_____________________________________

For more information contact:

Executive Chair:
Dennis France 
mailto:dennis.france at pharma.novartis.com
(973)781-6030
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Secretary:
Andy Zaayenga 
mailto:andy.zaayenga at tekcel.com
(732)302-1038
TekCel Corporation

Analytical Chemistry Chair and Treasurer:
William Haller 
mailto:bhaller at ompus.jnj.com
(908)218-6341
Ortho-McNeil

High Throughput Screening Chair:
John Babiak, Ph.D. 
mailto:babiakj at war.wyeth.com
(732)274-4788
Wyeth-Ayerst Research

Agricultural Applications Chair:
Sharon Reed 
mailto:reeds at pt.cyanamid.com
(609)716-2905
American Cyanamid

Data Management Chair:
Steve Fillers, Ph.D. 
mailto:william.fillers at pharma.novartis.com
(908)277-7723
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
_____________________________________

Directions to Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Corporation