A pair of partnerships
Thermo Fisher Scientific kicks off agreements for data management and COVID-19 testing
TORONTO—Thermo Fisher Scientific inked a pair of deals this week centered on its technology platforms and data processing capabilities, announcing the efforts back to back.
The first is a non-exclusive co-marketing agreement with Protein Metrics to offer advanced mass spectrometry data processing and analysis capabilities to support biopharmaceutical and proteomics work within the industry across all stages.
"Scientists undertaking biopharmaceutical and proteomics applications are challenged daily with having to accurately and reliably process a wealth of data derived from mass spectrometry instruments, which can be time-intensive and error-prone," said Matt Hazlewood, senior director of global chromatography data systems at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Our collaboration with Protein Metrics allows us to leverage our shared expertise and seamlessly integrate our compliance-ready software capabilities to offer customers flexible tools that address these challenges and help meet their need for advanced technologies that analyze their mass spectrometry data."
Thermo Fisher will be contributing its cloud-enabled Thermo Scientific Chromeleon CDS software, which the company notes offers superior automation and workflow support to help increase productivity by up to 33 percent. The software scales easily for small- or large-scale projects and integrates into company software while enabling remote operation across global laboratory networks. For its part, Protein Metrics brings its Byos platform to the agreement, which aids users in going from raw data to reporting in a matter of minutes and makes it possible to monitor post-translational modifications and other important criteria. The company's offerings also include the private-cloud Byosphere enterprise platform for automation, collaboration, and data management in one platform for GxP and non-GxP environments.
"We are proud that our proven biopharmaceutical solutions enable companies worldwide to analyze and report on complex biotherapeutics," stated Dr. Eric Carlson, president and CEO of Protein Metrics. "Byosphere, resting on Byos' solid foundation, delivers to our users a single platform for GxP and non-GxP environments. Integrating with critical enterprise data systems, such as Chromeleon CDS, we aim to provide our mutual biopharmaceutical customers with intuitive, streamlined workflows to manage the burgeoning volume and complexity of analytical data with confidence."
A day after the Protein Metrics announcement, Thermo Fisher reported that it had begun a strategic technology collaboration with Artificial, a developer of flexible automation software. The companies will work together on the development of an integrated, comprehensive software automation platform for Thermo Fisher's standardized COVID-19 Testing Platform in pursuit of increased testing throughput. Artificial will be providing access to its aLab Suite software, which offers the ability to schedule protocol runs with batch optimizations for maximum testing volume. When integrated with Thermo Scientific Momentum Workflow software, aLab can coordinate manual system set-up steps and an aLab assistant's digital twin of a COVID-19 testing system can support lab scientists on timing and protocol for loading system consumables for reduced error rates. Thermo Fisher Scientific will use this agreement to explore and offer feedback on aLab functionalities.
"Artificial's aLab Suite is a great addition to Thermo Fisher's standardized COVID-19 Testing Platform solution in further enabling COVID-19 testing laboratories to easily and quickly scale their operations to meet the current demands," said David Fuller, CEO of Artificial. "Our partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific represents an exciting opportunity to improve COVID-19 testing throughput and further develop the aLab Suite to address the pain points of the life-sciences market."
Photo credit: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
