For Immediate Release
Barcelona, Spain (June 14, 2024) – Several prestigious science and technology awards were announced during the SLAS Europe 2024 Conference and Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain last week. Each year the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) recognizes several exceptional presenters and exhibitors who represent the best of the Society’s programs and mission. The complete list of the Europe 2024 award descriptions and winners are below.
The SLAS Ignite Award is given to the most promising start-up company chosen to exhibit in Innovation AveNEW, a specially designated area of the exhibition floor dedicated to new and emerging life sciences technologies. The contenders arescored on marketing presence, message, market opportunity/level of innovation, impact, funding and balanced leadership. This year’s winner, Semarion (United Kingdom), won for SemaCyte®, which leverages novel materials physics to mobilize and barcode adherent cells. "Receiving the SLAS Ignite Award is a tremendous honor. At Semarion, we are revolutionizing in vitro drug discovery with our proprietary SemaCyte® platform. Our technology addresses fundamental bottlenecks in rapid data generation, offering a 10x increase in throughput and a 6x cost reduction to drug discovery workflows,” said Jeroen Verheyen, CEO and co-founder. Semarion also received a $5,000 cash prize.
The New Product Award is given to companies showcasing new products that are commercially available within 90 days pre- and post-conference. Products are evaluated by a judging panel that looks at a variety of qualifications before and at the conference. Winning products are granted use of the New Product Award designation for a year, and the award is promoted through SLAS. This year’s winners were:
The SLAS Europe 2024 Student Poster Award recognizes innovative research by students, graduate students, post-doctoral associates and junior faculty (less than four years in their first academic appointment) who are chosen to present a poster during the conference. Each winner receives a €500 prize. This year’s winners are:
Finally, SLAS distributed 10 Tony B. Travel Awards to students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty from 10 countries chosen for their original scientific research. Winning submissions are selected by a panel of judges and evaluated on the relevance of the research to the conference program, statement of value of the conference and overall scientific merit. Each winner has a chance to present their research at the conference through either a podium or poster presentation and receives roundtrip travel, hotel accommodations and full conference registration.
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Now in its fifth year, the SLAS Europe Conference and Exhibition is an annual event showcasing the world’s leading life sciences and technology products, services and education. This year, 1,185 life sciences researchers, academicians, laboratory automation technology providers and business leaders attended the conference in Barcelona, Spain, for a cutting-edge educational program focused on life sciences discovery and technology. The Exhibition featured 109 providers of laboratory automation and related research tools from around the world.
SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international community of more than 19,000 professionals and students dedicated to life sciences discovery and technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.
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Jill Hronek
Director of Marketing Communications
Telephone: +1.630.256.7527, ext. 103
E-Mail: jhronek@slas.org
