​​​Presentation Details:

Day 1 – October 28 (PDT time)

• 09:00-09:30 

Bio-Rad Keynote: History of Bio-Rad Innovation (Jim Barry, President - Life Sciences Group, EVP, Bio-Rad Laboratories)

Explore Bio-Rad’s journey from its founding in 1952 to becoming a global leader in life science and diagnostics. This talk highlights key breakthroughs, from early lab technologies to today’s digital biology and AI-driven tools, showing how Bio-Rad’s innovations have shaped scientific discovery and improved healthcare worldwide.
 

Jim Barry is the President of the Life Science Group (LSG) and Executive Vice President at Bio-Rad Laboratories, headquartered in Hercules, California. With a career spanning strategic leadership and operational excellence, Jim oversees Bio-Rad’s global life science portfolio, driving innovation in research tools, diagnostics, and manufacturing solutions.
Under his leadership, Bio-Rad has advanced initiatives in digital transformation, risk assessment, and organizational development. Jim is known for fostering cross-functional collaboration, championing inclusive workplace culture, and aligning business strategy with scientific progress.

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• 11:00-11:30 

Shimadzu LabSolutions support for Allotrope ADF/ASM (Timothy Lee, R&D Software Engineer Team Leader, Shimadzu)

LabSolutions exports chromatographic data to ADF and ASM files. The LabSolutions platform supports data management for many analytical instruments and can potentially export Allotrope-formatted files for more than chromatographic data.

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Tim Lee is a Software Engineer Team Leader for the R&D Center of Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI), a Shimadzu Corporation company. For the over 10 years that Tim has worked for SSI, he helped build support for Allotrope within Shimadzu Corporation.

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A new headless cloud-ready version of OpenChrom is available that can be easily integrated into existing environments with a strong emphasis on automation (Matthias Mailänder, Software Engineer, Lablicate GmbH)

Matthias Mailänder is a food chemist who works as a software engineer at Lablicate GmbH in Hamburg working on OpenChrom a multi-vendor chromatography data system. He is a strong advocate of Open Source software and FAIR data.

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• 11:30-12:00

ASM use case in the upcoming CogniFlow project: an autonomous, intelligent multi-data processing pipeline assembler and manager for wastewater treatment monitoring (Dr Ricardo Cunha, Institut für Umwelt & Energie, Technik & Analytik e. V. - IUTA)

The upcoming CogniFllow project aims to enable the autonomous and intelligent data processing and retrieval of early signals indicating a loss of wastewater treatment performance, as well as the detection of chemical spills and deviations in chemical and biological conditions. Analytical data in laboratories is diverse and required for a comprehensive and broad capability to detect anomalies. Thus, combining ASM with open communication protocols (e.g. LADS OPC UA) can significantly enhance the transfer of data from devices to data processing pipelines while ensuring FAIRness. ASM models for major analytical data are already available and will support the CogniFlow project in data harmonisation. The presentation will cover the main concept of CogniFlow, with a focus on the ASM use case

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Ricardo Cunha holds an MSc in Bio and Chemical Engineering from the University of Minho, Portugal, and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Since 1 June 2019, he has worked as a project manager and research assistant at IUTA. He has an academic and professional background in environmental technology, including the design, operation and maintenance of aerobic and anaerobic wastewater treatment technologies, and has implemented relevant interdisciplinary applications in various projects. These include the (bio)crystallisation of phosphorus in biological aggregates during anaerobic wastewater treatment; image analysis for morphological characterisation of aerobic flocculation sludge; the development of analytical methods for detecting trace contaminants in water samples using two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC), ion mobility and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS); and the development of data processing routines for correlating effect-based analysis with non-target screening. 

Day 2 – October 29 (PDT time)

• 08:30-09:00

BASF Implementation Update

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• 09:00-09:30

ASM for NMR (John Hollerton, Mestrelab/SciY)​

Mestrelab now supports reading and writing ASM files for NMR. This presentation and demo shows how ASM files can be generated automatically and fed into a data processing pipeline. It also looks at current limitations and potential future developments to extend the capability of ASM.

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John Hollerton had a career of over 40 years at GSK with a hybrid role of analytical chemistry and informatics culminating in a role of Director of Analytical Informatics. Former member of the Allotrope Executive team and the GSK representative on the Allotrope Board. Now working with Mestrelab/SciY and representing them on the Allotrope Board.

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• 09:30-10:00

Bio-Rad Keynote: The Lab OS We’ve Been Waiting For AI Agents + ASM + MCP Enable Interoperable Science (Shakila Pothini, VP, Clinical Diagnostics Group Software – Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.​)​

We will explore how AI agents, ASM, and MCP (Modular Computational Platform) are converging to create a unified operating system for scientific labs. By enabling seamless interoperability across tools, data, and workflows, a new Lab OS promises to accelerate discovery, improve reproducibility, and transform how science is conducted.

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Shakila Pothini is Vice President of CDG Software at Bio-Rad Laboratories, based in Hercules, California. She leads strategic initiatives focused on software innovation, AI integration, and data infrastructure across the Clinical Diagnostics Group. Shakila is known for her leadership in applying generative AI and metadata frameworks to improve decision-making, transparency, and operational efficiency. Her work spans healthcare, customer service, and life sciences, with a strong emphasis on ethical AI, explainability, and data governance.​

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• 10:00-10:30

Standardized Lab Data Integration based on OPC UA & Allotrope: Vendor-Neutral Data for BioPharma Manufacturing and Automated Analytical Workflows (Heiko Fessenmayr, Software R&D Lab Informatics System Architect, Agilent Technologies)​

This presentation demonstrates how the unification of standardized lab instrument communication and harmonized, vendor-neutral data formats becomes a reality — by exposing Allotrope data model information as an OPC UA Information Model.
Such an approach is highly relevant in domains like BioPharma manufacturing, and it is increasingly important for the automation of offline analytical laboratories.
Mapping Allotrope data into an OPC UA Information Model enables the direct exposure of fine-grained information without the need to transport or parse the full ASM JSON files.
The session will showcase a proof-of-concept that exposes Liquid Chromatography (LC) data—based on the Allotrope model—as an OPC UA Information Model, accessible via traditional OPC UA protocols as well as OPC UA REST APIs.
Whether you're a lab equipment vendor, software provider, system integrator, or data scientist, this session illustrates how (LADS) OPC UA and Allotrope data models together pave the way for next-generation lab connectivity, streamlined workflows, and truly standardized, vendor-neutral data usability.

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​Heiko Fessenmayr is a distinguished figure in the realm of analytical laboratory standards, focusing on the development of data formats and communication protocols. With over five years of dedicated service, he represents Agilent Technologies at the Allotrope Foundation, contributing significantly to the advancement of the ADF/ASM standard data format.
In addition to his foundational work, Heiko plays an instrumental role in enhancing analytical laboratory IoT communication standards through OPC-UA technologies. His leadership as chairman of the OPC-UA ASI/CAISI working group is pivotal in the standardized integration of analytical devices into comprehensive data systems.
Heiko’s expertise extends to the conceptualization of Lab Informatics solutions, particularly for chromatography data systems and analytical data content management systems. His comprehensive experience, spanning over two decades with HP/Agilent, encompasses software engineering, project and program management, technical marketing management, and, since 2015, his influential role as an R&D Lab Informatics System Architect.

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• 11:00-12:00

Ideation: Use of AI to enable AFO & ASM adoption – how can we positively disrupt and accelerate?  (Panelists: Alec Sculley, Felix Neubauer - University of Stuttgart, Allotrope Product Team)

Alec Sculley is a Knowledge Engineer at Summit Knowledge Solutions, specializing in BFO and CCO-conformant ontologies. He holds a Master’s degree in Ontology and Information Science from SUNY Buffalo. Alec is a co-author of a paper published in Scientific Data that aligns Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) with the Provenance Ontology.

Felix Neubauer is a research software engineer and PhD student at the University of Stuttgart, focusing on intelligent tools for data modeling and schema generation. After several years at Robert Bosch GmbH developing software for self-driving cars, he now leads the development of MetaConfigurator, an open-source schema editor and form generator for JSON and YAML. His recent work explores AI-assisted JSON Schema creation and mapping, presented at the MODELS conference.

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