Dear SiLA friends and members

On October 14th, 2021, SiLA in cooperation with BioLAGO host the second hackathon of four planned events in the bioSASH project. Laboratory users from different industries and fields have already presented their challenges in the lab in the first event which took place in June this year. Automation experts from all over Europe develop innovative solutions and improve existing processes in the lab during these hackathons.

It has been shown that laboratory automation offers a wide range of development opportunities, which can be examined and developed from a variety of perspectives. There is no single challenge in the laboratory, but rather a diverse spectrum of possibilities and challenges that must be overcome in the future of laboratory automation. Here SiLA 2 and AnIML help to overcome one of the biggest barriers to lead laboratories purposefully towards full automation.

For this very reason, it is important to be in contact with all stakeholders and to maintain a lively exchange so that the status in the laboratories can be recorded and innovatively developed further.

We invite laboratory users, SMEs, interested students, universities, laboratory automation experts and clinics to join our events.

For more information and free registration click here.

This is what happened at our last event, where challenges in the laboratory were presented.

Among others, a statement by: Dr. Ivo Quack (Chief Physician, Klinikum Konstanz) on the topic of “Laboratory diagnostics – special challenges in emergency medicine.”

“I particularly liked the networking of the different disciplines at the BioSASH event. As a medical professional, you usually have little insight into the technical possibilities and future developments.”

Experts like Daniel Juchli, who spoke on the topic of connectivity and data standards at the event, are particularly happy to offer these insights. Lab users were thereby shown the possibilities of the digital transformation of labs, which created great demand during and also after the event and will be followed up in the next hackathon.


Daniel Juchli (SiLA CTO and Managing Director, Board of Directors, Head Lab & Research Informatics at Wega Informatik AG)

“The digital transformation in the laboratory is underway. Many pharmaceutical companies but also laboratory service providers are optimizing their processes, connecting systems and devices and thus increasing data integrity in the (analytical) laboratory – an important requirement of health authorities for patient safety. However, the basis for digitization is the standardization of connectivity (SiLA) and data (AnIML). This standardization is necessary, but not sufficient. It also needs products and ideas that build on it. And that’s exactly why events like the BioSASH Hackathon are so important: Personally, I found the event to be a great enrichment and inspiration.”

The online event on October 14th is also aimed at programmers who would like to be part of a working group.

Innovative minds like Mike Groezinger from Siobra in Allensbach (DE) and Philipp Osterwalder from 1LIMS in Zurich (CH), formed a working group to bring lab users closer to the topic “Devices in the Local lab and LIMS in the cloud – how to build a smart data integration”. In these working group session participants discuss and define the challenges of lab users and turn them into innovative solutions.

Philipp Osterwalder (Managing Director, Co-Founder at 1LIMS – Laboratory and Quality Software)

“The speakers’ presentations on hurdles, problems and creative approaches in the field of laboratory automation and digitization were very interesting and provided a good overall view. Furthermore, the program was very well structured and, despite the virtual event, also offered space for personal exchange. The afternoon sessions were constructive and lively with great ideas and like-minded people,” says Philipp Osterwalder.

He is a laboratory scientist and one of the founders at the up-and-coming Swiss start-up 1LIMS, which recently took first place in the START Award – the Thurgau Young Entrepreneur Award.

Mike Groezinger adds:
“I would like to address a real laboratory automation problem with high impact. Ideally, I would like to have a good understanding of the problem, a working prototype solution, and people willing to take further steps towards a productive solution. I participated in the hackathon to learn about specific problems or challenges in lab automation. I look forward to working on difficult problems and finding innovative solutions where I can use my software development skills to help connect systems, users, and devices. What I particularly liked about BioSASH was the mix of attendees from different fields as well as the open communication. The number of speakers brought their lab challenges to the table well. I also liked the productive collaboration.”