As a part of our SLAS Europe 2022 coverage, we speak to Vicki Loise, CEO of SLAS, concerning the importance of collaboration, communication, and conferences in accelerating life sciences research. 

Please are you able to introduce yourself and tell us about your role on the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS)?

My name is Vicki Loise, and I’m the CEO of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, also referred to as SLAS.

SLAS is a global skilled society comprised of over 16,000 members from various scientific backgrounds, including industry, academia, and manufacturing and development. What are among the core missions and values at SLAS?

Our core mission is twofold. The primary is around education and providing probably the most relevant, recent content to our community that helps them advance of their work and careers. The second a part of our mission is about connecting all of those people. We now have an inclusive community, and we wish to be sure that we’re their point of interest for connecting with one another.

There may be a lot happening on this field immediately. Lab automation was on a comparatively fast trajectory pre-COVID, and COVID made that grow exponentially. There may be an comprehensible difficulty if you find yourself used to having 40 people in a lab at one time, and suddenly, you might be told that you just only have 4 people in that lab, yet expectations are the identical.

This meant that, for a lot of, automation was the one way that those expectations were going to be met, so there have been tremendous developments in lab automation over the past couple of years. This also arose from the pandemic and learning how folks try to make use of that automation when the provider may not have been in a position to are available in and do training. A lot of our tech providers are adapting their equipment so that people can learn the way to use that equipment on the job.

Certainly one of the opposite things which have come out of the last couple of years is realizing that we are able to do science higher and faster. Quite a lot of what we now have learned is to determine other ways to do what has at all times been done but in a way that delivers science into the hands of the general public as quickly as possible.

SLAS Community: Where Science and Technology UnitePlay

You offer an enormous number of resources for members, reminiscent of international conferences, grants, and scholarships, in addition to networking opportunities. Why is having such an unlimited portfolio of resources critical in furthering your pursuit of ‘research excellence’?

We now have a really broad scientific community and try to be certain that we deliver a worth proposition to that entire community. We all know people come to us for various reasons and at different points of their careers, so we wish to be certain that we now have the appropriate things for them once they come to those entry points.

Working alongside your members in a wide range of life sciences disciplines permits you to help speed up research and latest discoveries. How do you’re feeling the life sciences sector has modified over the past ten years, and are there any innovations that you just were particularly excited by?

There have been definitely a whole lot of great innovations coming to the forefront over the past ten years, pre-COVID. Everybody is enthusiastic about CRISPR:  most of the people has been using CRISPR in latest and revolutionary ways, especially over the past two years, but the way in which it was used in the course of the pandemic was simply unprecedented. If anybody had the chance to look at our keynote speaker on our opening day – Steve Rees, from AstraZeneca – he outlined how this disruption of a pandemic created this innovation.

This innovation forced our community to evaluate how they do things each day and ask those tough questions: “Why are we doing it this manner? And may we do it higher?” In doing this, they found a spread of higher ways to do science in order that things like PCR testing might be developed and delivered to the general public quickly in order that vaccines might be developed from technology that had been around for a very long time. Still, we could finally find exactly that right area of interest for that technology at a critical moment.

What has emerged is that this breaking down of barriers between corporations. Everybody is much more open to collaborating and breaking down some barriers.

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The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has halted much scientific research worldwide and stopped in-person scientific conferences and exhibitions, with them becoming virtual as an alternative. How necessary is having in-person conferences to SLAS? What are some great benefits of these for the life sciences?

In-person conferences are critical to our community. That is, for us, a record-breaking attendance for our Europe conference. It is just the third time we now have held it, and we needed to take a two-year break between 12 months two and 12 months three, so to have that record-breaking attendance tells you ways much persons are craving those all-important in-person interactions and doing the things that we just talked about. To give you the option to walk as much as anyone, have a conversation, and challenge or validate one another’s ideas.

You only don’t get that virtually. Virtual was what we needed to do when COVID hit because we would have liked to be sure that there was a way for the community to remain connected, and it was truly the one option. So now that we’re in a spot where being back face-to-face is feasible, and we are able to do it safely, it’s magical. You may feel the thrill around us, which continues to assist us as a company to grasp where the community is, what they need, and the way we are able to be certain that we’re delivering that for them.

One lesson that has been internationally recognized from the pandemic is the importance of collaboration. Scientific advancements may be made quickly when academic, industry, and government needs are aligned. What role do you think collaboration has inside the life sciences sector, and the way does SLAS help to foster innovation inside its work?

I feel collaboration is the important thing. A collaborative effort was arrange between industry, academia, and government, and the outcomes tell the entire story. The identical goes for the vaccine developers within the US with Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna. So, a whole lot of government funding went into ensuring that those technologies and vaccines happened as quickly as possible after which distributed as quickly as possible. Without collaboration, things will move much, much slower – if anywhere in any respect.

We’re, again, breaking down a few of those barriers, opening doors, and being willing to have conversations together with your counterparts, whether across industry to academia or government, is completely critical. That’s one other big reason why SLAS is holding these events: we make it possible for all of those sectors to take a seat down and have a conversation with someone doing very similar science, but perhaps in that different sector. There should not a whole lot of lawyers or corporate executives standing around – as an alternative, they will just talk concerning the science, which is how we get to the final result.

One other thing is that science is just not merely limited to those talks. All of the people on this floor are scientists. That’s how these technologies are developed: by having conversations with their customers – so there may be an incredible deal of science that gets exchanged on the exhibit floor and a whole lot of learning that may occur on the exhibit floor.

SLAS Ignite is one among your initiatives in helping to advertise collaboration inside science. You furthermore may offer the SLAS Ignite Award, which recognizes revolutionary latest corporations inside the life sciences. Why do you think it necessary to spotlight among the incredible latest start-ups we’re seeing?

To place it simply, start-ups are where it’s at. Start-up corporations are where latest and revolutionary science begins. Fairly often, those start-up corporations are working on a challenge or an issue that several large corporations are having as well, but they don’t have the time, resources, or focus for that one particular challenge, and so the start-up company is targeted on figuring that out.

Keeping those start-up corporations as a part of SLAS and our events is one among our top priorities. We make significant investments in things like Innovation Avenue and the SLAS Ignite program in order that those start-up corporations have a platform to speak about their products –  not only with the attendees but with the opposite corporations which are here.

Image Credit: SLAS

At lots of your in-person events, you offer networking opportunities for college kids and early-career professionals seeking to start their careers in life sciences. Why is allowing young people the chance to network with professionals within the industry so necessary? How can these opportunities help proceed incredible scientific advancements and encourage more people to pursue a profession inside science?

As we now have mentioned, collaboration and networking are the keys to success in science. So lots of these early-career scientists at the moment are having that chance to construct a network. They’ve either been at university –  or perhaps working as a postdoc – and easily haven’t had the identical opportunities. That is where we offer them with not only the place to do it but additionally with some mentoring and training: attempting to bring them along with individuals who can either help advance their profession or help them advance a matter that they’re working on.

Those folks are the long run of SLAS, they usually are the long run of the life sciences community, so we wish to be sure that we give them that chance to start out constructing that network. We do that in order that they will grow their careers – even possibly becoming a version of Steve Rees in 10 or 20 years – pulling together a network and dealing to unravel one among the world’s most important challenges.

How can people become involved with SLAS and develop into a member?

It is vitally easy to be a part of SLAS. You may go to our website, where you will discover details about joining and volunteering. We even have folks in our office who’re blissful to consult with anybody with questions at any time.

We now have a membership department that may answer questions, and you will discover their names and the way to reach them on the positioning.

What do you think the long run of life sciences to appear to be? Are there any particular sectors that you just are excited to look at evolve?

I’m really enthusiastic about what is going on in the information science space immediately. The best way that science and research are evolving implies that huge amounts of information are being generated within the lab. Certainly one of the challenges labs are having in the mean time is the way to manage that data: the way to best use it, store it, slice it and dice it.

Several corporations have emerged over the past couple of years focused on precisely that issue, helping those labs with that data and using AI to assist them with a few of their decision-making. This can be a space that I feel goes to be really interesting and explode over the following 12 months or two.

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What does the long run appear to be for SLAS? Are there any exciting projects within the pipeline?

We now have a few very exciting projects coming up. In 2021, the SLAS board of directors and a few of our volunteer leadership team put together a latest strategic plan that starts here – in 2022 – and takes us through 2026, containing ten motion steps.

Certainly one of the items is to develop a lab for the long run platform, so we plan to gather resources and data to be a dynamic and continually evolving platform where community members can interact. We desired to create a location where users could come and see what they ought to be ; how they ought to be solving an issue, and eventually, how they ought to be establishing their labs for the long run to be sure that they’re at all times on the innovative of automation to do the work that they’re doing.

What do you’re keen on most about SLAS?

I actually do love the people on this community. They’re, at first, among the kindest people I actually have ever met. They don’t are available in with any agendas or egos. They genuinely wish to work together to unravel the life sciences problems and advance their research, they usually care about this organization.

This organization’s leadership – and the volunteer leadership – has at all times been phenomenal. That has at all times been their primary priority: to be sure that the organization is moving forward and growing, and it’s an absolute delight to work with them.

About Vicki Loise

Vicki Loise is chief executive officer for SLAS, the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, a worldwide non-profit organization dedicated to advancing life sciences discovery and technology.  On this role, she directs the planning, development, and implementation of Society programs. Other responsibilities include interacting with the Board of Directors to ascertain strategic directions; leading planning efforts for the worldwide growth and sustainability of the Society; and supervising all skilled and contract staff team members.

Prior to SLAS, Loise worked for Kellen, a worldwide association management firm. As vp of association management at Kellen, she provided strategic planning and guidance to international societies, led business development efforts that increased revenue and raised awareness, and mentored skilled team members in executive-caliber skills.  From 2005-2014, Vicki served as the chief director for the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), where she raised awareness of the association and the career, while providing strong stewardship and governance to the organization. From 1993-2005 Loise worked for the National PTA completing her time there as Director of Development. Loise began her profession in association management with AAOMS, American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, from 1991-1993 of their meetings department.

Loise is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and Association Forum. She earned her Certified Meeting Skilled designation in 1995 and Certified Association Executive designation in 2005. She is a graduate of Central Michigan University, having earned a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal and public communications.