LabAutomation 2010 opened in Palm Springs this year with typical sunny skies and a special treat of snow-capped surrounding mountains – quite beautiful!  The picture inside was equally impressive with 4113 registrants, 18 short courses, 100 podium presentations, 200 posters, 400 exhibit booths, 40 new exhibitors and 20 new product launches. 

R. Graham Cooks from Purdue University opened the conference talking about the “Changing Landscape of Mass Spectroscopy”, including a clip from the popular TV show CSI where the investigators used Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) to sample trace compounds from the surface of a fingerprint.  Amazingly, Graham still remembered The LabMan from his days as a graduate student at Purdue quite a few years ago!  We were also sadly reminded that life can be short as tribute was paid to ALA co-founder Tony Beugelsdijk, who passed away in August.  The ALA academic travel award program has now been named in Tony’s memory as the Tony B. Awards.  This year there were 46 awardees.

On Tuesday, Kei Koizumi from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy educated the attendees about the intricacies of the distribution and use of federal grant money through the NIH.  He was followed by Hod Lipson from Cornell University, who presented his fascinating work in automatically searching data to develop analytic relationships in a variety of biological and mechanical systems.  Finally, on Wednesday morning, science fiction writer and former Twilight Zone writer/actor Bruce Sterling entertained us with his vision of the Future of Science in the World of the Next Web. 

There was also time for everyone to enjoy themselves.  The Sunday evening reception featured food and drink from a collection of Palm Springs restaurants and musical entertainment by The River Dogs Band, featuring ALA Charter Member Mark Russo on guitar and vocals.  Monday night “the hardest working band in science”, the PerkinElmer Rock Band entertained in the Hotel Zozo.  And this year people DID dance! 

The exhibition floor as usual was crowded and energetic.  Three new product award winners were announced: 

·         Emerald Biosystems – The Microcapillary Protein Crystallization System (MPCS)

·         Artus Labs – the Method Genius software

·         Beckman Coulter – SPRIworks Fragment Library System 1

Check out The LabMan podcasts for live interviews with each these companies to learn more about these award winning products.  

The LabAutomation2010 $10,000 ALA Innovation Award went to Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., Cambridge, MA, USA, Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his podium presentation, Microengineered Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering and Stem Cell Bioengineering.  Additionally, the ten finalists for this award will travel to present their work at AchemAsia, June 2–5, 2010 in Beijing, China. Their travel expenses will be paid by ALA, DECHEMA and Peking University.

The student poster award winner was Govind Kaigala, Stanford University, with his poster topic ”Label-Free Toxin Detection Using Fluorescent Fingerprint Assay”.  Listen to The LabMan podcasts for an interview with this awardee. 

So, the LabAutomation conference continues to rock, in many different ways!  The LabMan hopes to see all of you again next year in Palm Springs at LabAutomation2011, January 29-Feb 2. 

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto!