Strateos shifts strategy to on-site cloud labs
Strateos is a provider of lab automation software and remote access laboratories, and it cited increased demand for on-site cloud labs as the reasoning behind its shift in focus.
According to the company, its offerings are centered around LodeStar, a scalable software platform that enables companies to manage research operations and instruments to run scientific workflows through the cloud. The software is also capable of creating machine- and human-actionable data streams.
Strateos’ clients using LodeStar are able to utilize capabilities including remote control and automation of scientific devices, workflow design, scheduling, reagent resourcing, experiment execution, data generation, as well as other tasks.
One of the attractions of this approach, Strateos stated, is that it enables teams that are approaching maximum capacity in their labs to continue to grow and scale without adding significant resources.
Strateos describes how its services include clients being able to access a remote-controlled and on-demand smart lab through a web browser. This effectively allows researchers from around the world to access Strateos’ lab equipment.
The lab space is located in Menlo Park and San Diego, California, where the US company possesses 14,000-square-feet of laboratory space and more than 200 research instruments, with applications in small molecule and biologics drug discovery, as well as cell and gene therapies and synthetic biology.
“As a pioneer in cloud labs, our mission remains clear: to digitize discovery and to free life scientists from having to manually manage workflows and perform all their work in a physical lab. Disrupting an established industry often requires the flexibility to pivot toward demand, which for biopharmaceutical customers is creating state-of-the-art on-site cloud labs,” said Mark Fischer-Colbrie, Strateos CEO.
In terms of what action it would be taking to restructure its business, Strateos outlined that it would establish a project management office, to manage the deployment process – this involves initial assessment, through to design, implementation, and ongoing support. The company added that it would reorganize its staffing structure and recruit additional staff members to design and deliver private cloud-enabled lab solutions.
Last year, Strateos announced that it would expand its services to include an ‘idea-to-data’ solution for small molecule discovery.
The platform supports early lead generation through to lead optimization, which is enabled through software allowing users to design compounds via the cloud. Once designed, the companies can then have these compounds tested through cell-based, biochemical and structured-activity relationship assessments.
