SLAS Europe 2023
2nd June 2023 - Last modified 14th September 2023
By David Robinson, Founding Director
This year’s Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Europe event was back in Brussels – the first time in the city since 2018, – and this year it was held at the Brussels Expo, near the Atomium. It was an inauspicious start for me and a number of other attendees travelling from the UK. Having decided to take the Eurostar (for all the right reasons – low carbon footprint, city-to-city connection etc), the departure was delayed by an hour, which meant that the departure lounge went from really busy (with only 1 or 2 seats anyway!) to standing room only.
However, once at the venue, there was a queue of visitors waiting to pick up their badges which was an encouraging sign. In the hall it was good to see many of the established names in automation and drug discovery (with some significant omissions), as well as the new name of Revvity. And what a great job the design agency had done with their branding. Strong and clear with colours and lighting that made the stand literally stand out.
As usual there were a number of great new robotic systems providing ever higher throughout and improved ease-of-use, as well as greater affordability such as the Opentrons Flex robot. There was some really interesting developments in cell biology including the RASTRUM 3D Bioprinter from Inventia Life Science for printing 3D cell constructs, and Arralyze’s CellShepherd platform for single cell screening. As ever, too many companies and products to mention!
A day walking round the hall and it was clear that attendance was OK if not outstanding, and chatting with exhibitors, the general feeling was that it was down from the last time the event was held in Brussels. But then again, exhibitors always want to see more people. The consensus was that there were enough of the right people to make this an exhibition worth attending, so all in all, a good show and worth the visit. Next year, SLAS Europe will be in Barcelona. See you there!
