CABTalks by Synthace Fane Mensah and Synthace

Emilie Fritsch, Principal Scientist at Syngenta, joins Fane to talk about her journey from scientist to lab automation specialist. As her career evolved, so did her understanding of the automation needs of science. She went from molecular biology to the perfect blend of science and automation learning the best of both worlds to shape better science.

The podcast is filled with nuggets of wisdom to take away, here’s what you can expect:


(3:00 mins) Being thrown into the deep end of lab automation
(7:30 mins) Three users of new technology: early adopters, watchers and skeptics
(11:40 mins) Communicate reassurance. Look after those that are resisting new technologies and they will become your champions
(14:11 mins) The “Eureka” moment of a skeptic adopting new technology feels really good
(15:43 mins) The key learning from automation: not one size fits all
(21:43 mins) Understand your problem so you know when to use automation
(23:05 mins) Biologists need to spend less time pipetting and more time on the things they’re good at: the science
(27:50 mins) Scientists need to be good communicators to thrive in a diverse environment filled with opportunities and challenges
(31:43 mins)  Women can become lab automation specialists, your study doesn’t define your scientific future

Listen to the podcast to follow the conversation. If you have questions about this podcast - hello@synthace.com is only an email away

Mario Antonio Torres Acosta,Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL, joins us to talk about his lab automation journey as an academic, specifically teaching others how to use lab automation.

There’s plenty to cover in this episode, but you can look forward to hearing about:


The shift to lab automation post-pandemic (5:25 mins)
Automation and expertize is fluid, so should be the approach to adopting it and to think in the long term (11:30 mins to 16:21mins)
Commitment is a big barrier to adopting lab automation (21:19 mins)
Assessing how comfortable a person is with automation is to say nothing, see what they do and use this as a measure for your adoption (25:59 mins)
Addressing the automation skills shortage in life sciences starts in academia (32:50 mins)

Mario and Fane delve into the deep nitty-gritty of automation in an academic setting with lessons that apply to those on their automation journey.

Listen to the podcast to follow the conversation. If you have questions about this podcast - hello@synthace.com is only an email away!

Bob Gantzer, Director of Lab Automation at Beam Therapeutics joins us to talk about his trials and tribulations across his lab automation journey.

Here are some of the many golden threads of wisdom he speaks to:


How he became a lab automation guru by being a “flunky scientist”
Taking the hard lessons of automating in a large company and raising it to a fledgling biotech company
Why you must prioritize automation in your R&D
Lab automation is not a technical problem, it’s a people problem, and you have to sell the dream to scientists who aren’t trained with highly integrated robotics.

There’s a ton of helpful things Bob said about lab automation and how he learned to be successful at implementing it.

Listen to the podcast to follow the conversation. If you have any questions about this podcast - hello@synthace.com is only an email away!

Gintarė Bučaitė is a Senior Scientist at Benevolent AI, and she’s carved out her career working in academia, big pharma and small biotech doing what she does best - enabling scientists to do the science they want to do.

But it’s not always been easy. In this podcast, she talks about her journey of actively shaping her career and the science she wants to achieve. From the uncertainty of her post-doc career to her forays in data science to enable scientists to do the science they want, Gintarė shares her journey with the hope that others learn from her successes and challenges.

Phil Kay is a Learning Manager at JMP with over 16 years of practical experience working with a multitude of companies across industries championing Design of Experiments (DOE) and the marvels of this transformational methodology.

In this podcast, he talks about how DOE in life sciences has been a fascinating evolution to watch. How it’s transformed the way biopharma companies get drugs to market faster, how it’s helped improve the productivity and predictability of R&D teams, and how it has impacted a person’s career. Design of Experiments is the future, the future is already here with scientists and automation at the heart of this.

Markus Gershater is the Chief Science Officer of Synthace and has over 15 years of experience working with biopharma and life sciences companies to enable better experimentation for scientists. He’s also a champion for Design of Experiments (DOE) as the way forward for experimentation.

In this podcast, Markus goes into the framing of “Lab of the Future”. He shares his own personal experiences to dig into this adage and why he feels the framing “isn’t quite right”. He says “the lab is more than just the room itself, it’s the technologies, people, and science involved”. He also goes into deep detail about the importance of metadata and why scientists need to take care better of their data.