Learn more about what SLAS represents for its members through their testimonials.

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SLAS Europe is proud to offer a portfolio of products and services that are delivered mainly through membership in the Society. By joining SLAS, you will enter a global community of more than 18.000 dedicated scientists, engineers, researchers, technologists and business leaders of whom more than 5.000 are located in Europe and who are focused on helping each other succeed by leveraging and advancing scientific technology.

SLAS offers three different levels of membership based on the active interest either in the field of Biomolecular Sciences, Laboratory Automation, or both. Full, year-round value, membership provides you with access to news, online resources, scientific journals, significant registration discount, webinars, member directories and much more.

Do not hesitate to discover the full list of member benefits and find the membership type that’s best for you.

Join SLAS today and take advantage of member discounts for SLAS2016 conference in San Diego, California!

“I remember vividly when I to go into drug discovery,” Wingfield recalls. “I was doing basic research on transcription factors in the hospital’s research lab. That day, I walked into the cafeteria—there was only one for both staff and patients—and sat down among all the children, so many of whom were seriously ill. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’ve had nine years of education, but I’m not making a difference. I have to do something more productive and helpful.’” Read more about Wingfield’s award-winning work combining mass spectrometry and acoustic droplet ejection in the SLAS Electronic Laboratory Neighborhood e-zine. 

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Drug Discovery Sciences is a rapidly evolving area where continuous development and innovation are the lifeblood of the industry.  The aim of this forum will be to take a holistic look at this area and to identify some of the new trends and interests, in the form of a SLAS sponsored stream that aims to be the first of many exciting opportunities for scientists to discover where the next contributions from science and technology will come from. MORE

Prof. Giuseppe Marino, full professor in mathematics at the University of Calabria, has been recently awarded as one of the mathematicians most influential in the world by the society Thomson Reuters. 

This result is particularly relevant for the scientist: “because they have selected me without a real competition. They have built an algorithm to measure not only the amount of citations but their quality. In other words, 3 to 4 different publications were cited by more than 200 different studies. This parameter is quite high in mathematic field compared to other research areas”.

Prof. Marino unveiled: “I love mathematics since ever. When I was child, I was spending my time counting…everything. I was counting steps, things, km made by cars. I could not see how much a thing was beautiful…I was just counting. When I grew up, I tried to avoid this habit but it is still difficult!”.

Thus, mathematics for Prof. Marino is a true love which is a typical feature of scientist belonging to this area. In the Italian schools and academies, indeed, mathematics is still a controversial issue: somebody fully loves it, while somebody else simply detests it. Prof. Marino claims: “People that do not understand mathematics is because they do not understand the grammar principles of language behind it:  the meaning of conjunctions in Italian is different respect that of the same conjunctions in mathematics. This is why people stack and do not go forward in mathematics. When I start explaining this philosophical aspect of mathematics to students in the colleges and at universities, they follow my lessons better and mathematics becomes easy. Moreover, do not forget that Italy has a humanistic culture: this often means that people are <<proud>>  to say that they do not understand mathematics!”.

To became a good researcher it is fundamental to follow a great school and Prof. Marino recognized two important mentors for his life: Prof. Cimmino and Prof. Espedito de Pascale: “After graduation in mathematics I was in Rome at the <<Istituto di Alta Matematica>> where I started working on functional analysis and <<Hilbert spaces>> with Prof. Cimmino. Hilbert is, surely, one of  the greatest mathematics of our century, from University of Gottigen in Germany. Prof. Cimmino during the lesson about Hilbert spaces, suddenly, started crying. He was touched because he was in Germany working with Hilbert when he defined these principles for the first time... He felt like Hilbert’s son, then me… I am Hilbert’s grandson, since I am spiritual son of Prof. Cimmino”. “Regarding Prof. Espedito de Pascale I lived at his personal and professional school, here at University of Calabria for many years, since the beginning of my academic career. He is a great person and scientist. If I think about the best mathematician in the past, in my mind appears Eulero, while at present the Japanese Wataru Takahashi deserves this honor because he MADE mathematics since 1960.”.

The main accusation for mathematics is to be too far from reality but Prof. Marino explained simply what is functional analysis and what are the potential applications for human life: “ Functional analysis studies the properties of group of functions: it is a research area very broad; my group is involved in studying approximation algorithms. In other words, these find application in each field where you wish to have, at the same time, a minimum of something and a maximum of something else. As example:  you need an approximation to decide for how long you need to have a red light at the traffic lights in a city,  to manage the stocks of a supermarket or of a hospital, to minimize the expense of energy..etc. Recently, with a Chinese group we are studying a way to optimize the area reached by radiations during anti cancer therapy. This with the aim to minimize the size of healthy tissue victim of radiation side effects.” It is not a secret that research in Italy is challenging but Prof. Marino is firmly convinced of his decision to stay here: “ I have several scientific collaborations worldwide, in Taiwan, in Alabama, in China, in Poland. Some of them invited me to go abroad but I decided to stay in Calabria. I strongly believe that we cannot leave Calabria, otherwise nobody remains here and this region simply disappears, even though it is true that in Calabria and, in general, in Italy everything is much difficult because resources are scarce. Recently, I got an invitation from an the King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. At the beginning I though it was a joke of some friends but it was not and now I am collaborating with researchers of this modern University. The direction of the institution invites the most aknowledged scientists worldwide to improve the importance and the know-how of the University. They spend a lot of money in ameliorating quality of research…in Italy we move in the opposite direction!”.  

Prof. Marino concluded the interview with a recipe for Italian research: “ We have good students and I love teaching. I take care of their education. My best result in my scientific life is my group of young and motivated researcher. I have chosen them because they were brilliant students and I helped them growing up in research. Now they are  independent and great scientists. The main problem of Italian University is that we leave our youths: we educate them, we teach and transmit our experiences during university lessons, PhD programs and then, we let them going far away in USA, Saudi Arabia or somewhere else because we do not have enough economic resources to offer good positions in Italy. This is a suicide politics: we are like a father that dies without sons.”

Prof. Nicola Leone, full professor in Computer Science and director of department of Mathematics and Computer Science at University of Calabria, represents a great example of successful ideas in both basic and applied research as demonstrated by numerous awards:  in  2009 at Providence (NY, USA), Nicola Leone received the eminent "Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award" for one of the best scientific articles with highest impact on research in 10 years; in 2012 at Montpellier (France) Nicola Leone was recognized as "ECCAI Fellow" by the “European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence"; the H-Index of his publications is 45 and, for this reason, Nicola Leone has been included in the rank of the best Italian scientists (Via Academy).

Prof. Leone declared: “Awards are results of academic studies, career, works, collaborations. I have studied mathematics here, at University of Calabria. Then, I started working with an Italian Agency (CRAI: Consorzio per la Ricerca e l’Applicazione Informatica) where I moved to informatics. After a while, I have accepted a fellow at the CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche). This represented, for my professional life, a keystone because opened the collaboration with Vienna University of Technology were I was professor for 6 years (1995 – 2000). In 2000, I was back in Calabria and, in this University, I founded thebachelor and the master in informatics, the PhD programme in mathematics and computer science. I am very proud of my group, constituted by brilliant scientists, which has been  recognized as excellent in the field of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).”.

These success have been shared with Faculty of Science that helped Prof. Leone when arrived at University of Calabria to build up his own group. Informatics is not a ‘cold science’, Prof. Leone indeed declared that: “Imagination is important particularly to solve basic research problems. This is the reason why  I have received the prize in 2009 in USA. In that moment, in fact, we were able to solve a scientific problem controversial for more than 30 years”. Still imagination is the reason that moved Prof. Leone to accept the great challenge to leave the prestigious University of Vienna and to come back to Italy: “Since I was able to be part of a great research group in Austria, the biggest challenge at that moment of my professional life was to build up a research group with international breath also here in Calabria where I was born and grew up”.

To reach such important results Prof. Leone  acknowledged his mentor at University of Vienna, prof. Georg Gottlob, now at Oxford University: “The most important results achieved during my career concern theoretical studies, as demonstrated by the award of 2009. However, the activity of my group is more famous for one important applied study, that has led to the development of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) system, called DLV. The implementation of DLV has started when I was still in Vienna, in collaboration with research groups worldwide. This system has broad applications, it somehow allows to ‘program the brain of a robot’ to make planning, diagnosys, scheduling, and many other database and AI applications. DLV allowed to focus a specific research area and around these results my group has developed. Indeed, I started working on this idea when I was in Vienna and since I moved to Calabria I brought my ‘research son’ in Italy and because of the importance of this application, part of my group in Vienna followed me here. Now DLV is used worldwide: DLV technology has been tested for driving space shuttle at NASA, integration of synchrotron experimental data at CERN of Geneva, data cleaning, diagnosis, planning and a lot of other different implementations. This project gave big importance to my group but also to whole University ”.

The possibility of making research in informatics is guaranteed by the great advances in technology: “It’s a good moment to be an expert in informatics. In particular, Artificial Intelligence studies require an incredible amount of calculations which now are possible thanks to new improved hardware. Artificial Intelligence takes more and more place in daily life, let’s think about smart cities or intelligent vacuum cleaner etc.. ”.

In conclusion the recipe of Prof. Leone to became a researcher in informatics: “In Calabria, as well as in Austria I met great and motivated students able to solve difficult problems. It’s important however to highlight that to became a researcher and not only a technician is important to have passion. The way is hard, students need to be determined, opened to cross-talk with international scientists. It is important for a young researcher to know his own possibilities but, at the same time, to be humble enough to keep learning and studying for the whole life. The most important characteristic for a researcher is the ability to stay in a group, to collaborate honestly, to share ideas and experiences.”

The Journal of Biomolecular Screening (JBS), one of two rigorously peer-reviewed MEDLINE-indexed scientific journals published by the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), marks the beginning of its 20^th year of publication by releasing a special issue addressing “Novel Therapeutic Approaches for Neglected Infectious Diseases” for the January issue. This issue in its entirety will be freely and fully available online (open access) thanks to the impetus and support from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi).

This special Open Access Issue is organised by JBS guest editors Julio Martin-Plaza of GlaxoSmithKline in Tres Cantos, Spain, and Eric Chatelain of the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative (DNDi) in Geneva, Switzerland.

http://jbx.sagepub.com/content/early/recent

• ADVANCE REGISTRATION DATES. SLAS2015 Advance registration rates are in effect only through Friday, January 9. Register by this date and save up to $200 off your full conference registration. http://slas2015.org/registration/index.cfm
• POSTER SUBMISSIONS. SLAS2015 Scientific Poster submissions will be accepted until Monday, January 26. For more details and an online submission form, visit the SLAS2015 Poster Presentations web page. http://www.slas2015.org/presenters/posterguidelines.cfm

SLAS2015 is pleased to present a series of special sessions, each comprised of multiple presentations, dedicated to especially timely and relevant topical areas. On 9 February, Steven Rees host the session about ‘European Government/Foundation Drug Discovery Initiatives’.

These initiatives have included the development of new compound libraries, the establishment of academic screening centres and the formation of innovative partnerships with industry. Speakers in this special session explore the interaction of these initiatives with academia and pharma, and describe the anticipated benefit of these programs in terms of bringing novel projects into the clinic.

http://www.slas2015.org/program/specialsessions.cfm

SLAS Europe is already preparing for the new year and has a lot going on. Come Transform Research with us at one of the following events:

• SLAS Conference on Compound Management in Industry and Academia 24-25 March, 2015. Dortmund, Germany.
• Nordic Chemical Biology Meeting, 5-6 May, 2015. Sweden.
• Cutting-edge Technologies for Target Validation Conference, 18-19 May, 2015. Edinburgh, UK.

http://europe-slas.org/conferences.htm

Plug yourself into the world’s largest network of laboratory science and technology professionals. Sign up today and stamp your passport to unique access by way of SLAS events, journals, forums, webinars and more. An SLAS membership makes you an integral part of a global community comprising more than 18,000 dedicated scientists, engineers, researchers, technologists, and business leaders of whom more than 5,000 are located in Europe and who are focused on helping each other succeed by leveraging and advancing scientific technology.

SLAS offers three different levels of membership based on the active interest either in the field of Biomolecular Sciences, Laboratory Automation, or both. Full, year-round value, membership provides you with access to news, online resources, scientific journals, significant registration discount, webinars, member directories and much more.

Join SLAS today and take advantage of member discounts for SLAS2015 conference in Washington, D.C.! Don’t forget to register before January 9, 2015 to take advantage of the early bird.

http://www.slas.org/membership/join-or-renew/

Last month, Marc Bickle was announced as one of the two new board member for the SLAS Europe Council. The SLAS Electronic Laboratory Neighborhood (ELN) took the opportunity to interview him. You will get to know him as an SLAS2015 Short Course Instructor, a Journal of Biomolecular Screening (JBS) Editorial Board member, JBS special issue guest editor and author, but also as an avid triathlete, and family man. 

http://www.eln.slas.org/story/1/167-marc-bickle-a-quest-for-cell-culture-relevance-

Submit a mesmerizing scientific image for a chance to win a fully paid registration to SLAS2016, Jan. 23-27, 2016, in San Diego, CA. Ten finalists will receive autographed copies of the book I Heard the Sirens Scream: How Americans Responded to the 9/11 and Anthrax Attacks by SLAS2015 keynote speaker Laurie Garrett, plus 60 days free online access to the SAGE Pharmacology & Biomedical Collection which publishes more than 100,000 articles!

http://www.slas.org/default/assets/File/1148228_SLA%20Art%20of%20Science%20Contest%20Ad_Press_nocrop.pdf

Kicking off the calendar year, SLAS2015 is the platform event for established companies launching new products and services. Innovation AveNEW is an in-kind, cost-sensitive programme affording emerging, start-up companies the opportunity to actively engage and participate in a world-class event which helps to grow and scale their business as well as directly connects them with purchasing influencers and decision-makers from more than 40 countries

Be sure to stop by Innovation AveNEW in the SLAS2015 Exhibition to visit with these companies and see the technology which earned this important distinction.

http://www.slas2015.org/exhibitors/innovationave.cfm

SLAS2015 is pleased to host a series of special sessions, each comprised of multiple presentations, dedicated to especially timely and relevant areas. Topics covered in these three  sessions are European Government/ Foundation Drug Discovery Initiatives, The Commercialization of Laboratory Technologies andhe National Institutes of Health. 

http://www.slas2015.org/program/specialsessions.cfm

A team of researchers from Bayer Pharma in Germany describe an approach that quantifies changes in global levels of histone modification marks using HCA. The approach is validated in different cell lines by using small interfering RNA and SMOL inhibitors. With automation and miniaturization, the authors demonstrate its utility in conducting phenotypic HTS campaigns and assessing structure-activity relationships (SAR). This assay enables screening of SMOL EZH2 inhibitors and can advance the mechanistic understanding of H3K27me3 suppression. This original research is fully and freely available at JBS Online ahead-on-print.

http://jbx.sagepub.com/content/early/recent

Organised by JBS guest editors Julio Martin-Plaza of GlaxoSmithKline in Tres Cantos, Spain, and Eric Chatelain of the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative (DNDi) in Geneva, Switzerland, “this issue (Vol. 20, Issue 1, January 2015) presents an intriguing collection of thoughtfully assembled review papers and original research reports,” says JBS editor-in-chief Robert M. Campbell. The issue in its entirety is freely and fully available online (open access) thanks to the impetus and support from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi).

http://jbx.sagepub.com/ 

In JALA the different ways of how scientists adapt advancements in technology for scientific experimentation are explored. The cover article is by Meiye Wu, research scientist at Sandia National Laboratory, and features her work in microfluidic molecular assay platforms. JBS reports how scientists use adapted technology to pursue new therapeutics for unmet medical needs, including assay development, identification of chemical probes and target identification and validation in general.

You can also be part of this as there currently is a call for action for both magazines.

http://www.slas.org/Publications/scientific-journals