image: Lab of the Future event exclusive to SLAS2025 International Conference and Exhibition.
Credit: SLAS
Oak Brook, IL – The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) will launch NexusXp, its new interactive pavilion at SLAS2025 to showcase collaborative and integrated lab automation scenarios. NexusXp combines Nexus, the Latin word for link or connection where multiple elements meet, with the modern “Xp” to signify the “Xperience” of making that critical link or connection. Through this new pavilion, SLAS will demonstrate how automation integration transforms research and enables scientific breakthroughs.
“NexusXp is an exclusive event or attendee experience and a way for exhibitors to showcase their capabilities and their ability to collaborate and integrate with the global automation industry,” says Amy Wilkinson, SLAS Director of Global Events and Corporate Partnerships. “This is not another lecture hall or theater space, it is an exclusive cross-media presentation space to showcase integrations, success stories, solve challenges and build plans to move a lab forward, whether they’re buying their first piece of equipment or looking for the next best thing to propel their research.” NexusXp is the next iteration of SLAS’s Lab of the Future initiative.
“We are focusing this year’s integration “story” on the well-known Design – Make – Test - Analyze cycle to illustrate all the ways lab automation platforms can come together to enable effective drug discovery,” says Lesley Mathews, SLAS Scientific Director. “By showcasing successful collaborations at each step of this cycle, we can assist any lab director, principal investigator or other lab head to identify their spot in the automation trajectory and build a plan to accelerate their research.” The word Nexus is also significant within cell biology, signifying a specialized area of the cell membrane involved in intercellular communication and adhesion, implying that the nexus of a cell facilitates communication among the various parts and allows it to work properly.
The NexusXp pavilion will feature:
- solutions-focused Automation Success Stories using physical and digital examples of system integrations, live storytelling and simulations;
- Collaborative Integration Scenario Showcases to demonstrate how a lab can integrate various technology providers’ automation solutions to work in unison through the four pillars of the DMTA cycle; and
- Multi-company discussion areas to better understand the platform relationships and provide participants with actionable insights.
Approaches and illustrations of the DMTA automation integration scenarios in NexusXp will be curated by Sam Michael, Director of Automation and Compound Management and Acting Chief Information Officer at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NCATS/NIH). In collaboration with the technology providers, Michael will ensure a scientifically rigorous and engaging pavilion for participants. His expertise in data harmonization and multi-institutional collaboration earned him a Champion of Change Award in 2021.
Access to the NexusXp debut at SLAS2025 International Conference and Exhibition will be limited to 500 participants in the first year and will require a separate attendee ticket to enter. More details will be available when SLAS2025 registration opens in August 2024. For more information about participating as a NexusXp sponsor or exhibitor and building a showcase scenario, contact Jen Kerhin, slas@discoversb.com or (301) 658-2195.
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SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international professional society of academic, industry and government life sciences researchers and the global leader for developers and providers of laboratory automation technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government together to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.
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