Equipped to trust How lending out a single CyBio FeliX robot led to a flourishing business relationship.

How lending out a single CyBio FeliX robot led to a flourishing business relationship.

As Debra Conway, head of Analytik Jena UK Ltd., recollects: "We choose carefully who we loan out expensive equipment to for long-term evaluations." And yet, she did decide to do just that with a CyBio FeliX automatic pipetting robot for liquid handling, lending it out just this once to a London-based startup called LabGenius operating in protein expression.

And that decision has indeed paid off – for both parties involved. LabGenius is a SynBio start-up company, with molecular biologists, coders, and engineers all working side by side to create synthetically engineered therapeutic proteins that don’t occur naturally. The LabGenius automation experts had reached the point where they felt they needed to replace their original low-throughput devices with an integratable automation solution. Debra was persuaded by the startup’s dynamic expertise: "I knew that they had the skills and dedication for working with the technology, both hardware and software." This all resulted in a classic win-win situation: "LabGenius was able to demonstrate to its investors how CyBio FeliX and Carry enhanced their throughput so that they met their milestones and secured their next rounds of funding. The collaboration between AJ and LabGenius has enhanced our place in the biotech sector and we have received more orders from LabGenius, who are constantly promoting our technology through online media." The system originally loaned was not just subsequently bought in full, but in fact became the first in a whole array of Analytik Jena equipment to be purchased within 12 months: three CyBio FeliX systems, a CyBio Carry lab robot, and two Biometra TRobot thermocyclers.

In the United Kingdom …

… only the southern part of the country has been serviced so far, with Analytik Jena now expanding slowly northward towards the Midlands.

For historical reasons, this has only included the company’s Life Science portfolio and not analytical measurement technology.

… Analytik Jena is located in Imperial College London’s Translation & Innovation Hub with a large array of labs and offices already in place.

… you get to meet Sir David Attenborough.

He was guest of honour at the Royal Society of Biology ’s 10th Anniversary Dinner this March, before the lockdown began. The AJUK team was lucky enough to host a table of customers and colleagues at the event in London’s famous Science Museum. David Attenborough spoke there about how, as biologists, we hold the key to bringing about global change.