Thursday, May 1, 2008

Development Track

DRIVING EFFICIENCY IN PROCESS R&D WITH SYMYX SOFTWARE

9:40 Chairperson’s Remarks
Randy Clark, Vice President, Marketing, Symyx Technologies, Inc.

9:50 Upgrading a Global Deployment of Symyx Process Notebook and Subsequent Exploitation of the New Capabilities
Ian Menzies, Senior Informations Manager,Business Development, AstraZeneca, Global Process R&D
This talk will look at the upgrade process used by AstraZeneca to move from IntelliChem version 4.2 to version 5.4 of Symyx Process Notebook. It will also discuss how we have made use of the workflow features of Vault 5.08 to help us utilize the software for early phase GMP manufacture.

10:20 Bringing Green Chemistry to the Scientist via ELN at Eli Lilly and Company
Michael E. Kopach, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, Chemical Product R&D, Eli Lilly & Co.
Since the initial deployment of a fully electronic lab notebook at Eli Lilly and Company in 2004, numerous organizational efficiencies have been achieved. For commercial R&D processes, minimization of waste and elimination of hazardous solvents are important environmental objectives. To assist with these green chemistry goals, an ELN customization has been developed and successfully beta tested which determines the Process Mass intensity (PMI) for a specific step and an entire process. In addition, the new tool reports Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals and classifies all solvents with an environmental rating.

10:50 Thin Client Computing with the Symyx ELN
Jeff Dziedzic, Applications Specialist, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
The purpose of this presentation is to examine some of the challenges that may occur when implementing the Symyx Notebook (ELN) and to demonstrate a viable solution to these issues. When operating in a fully electronic world, hardware components must be in place to help maximize the efficiency of the laboratory scientist. Some of the challenges faced result from scientists writing notes on paper, contamination from laptops moving in and out of the lab environment, and document tracking. Thin client computing offers a solution to accessing the Symyx Notebook while working effectively in a remote lab.

Development Track

ADDING VALUE THROUGH SYMYX SOFTWARE IN DEVELOPMENT

2:45 Chairperson’s Remarks
Randy Clark, Vice President, Marketing, Symyx Technologies, Inc.

2:55 High-Throughput Reaction Screening: When More is Less
Robert Wade, D. Phil., Research Fellow, Pfizer Inc.
We have had high-throughput screening groups at multiple Pfizer sites for many years now. However, much of the workflow is quite heterogeneous with respect to hardware and software and the resulting volumes of raw and processed data are not readily accessible for general perusal or data-mining. This talk will illustrate our efforts to utilize the Symyx Software informatics platform and integration with third-party hardware/software and provide significantly faster turnaround for screening requests.

3:25 Managing Physical Property Data on Crystalline Phases in a Global Organization
Timothy A. Rhodes, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Center for Physicochemical Characterization, Merck Research Laboratories 
Automation results in large volumes of data and creates new information technology challenges. For example, automated data loading is essential to manage the volume of spectroscopic data generated in high throughput salt and polymorph screening. However, data that are added automatically do not get reviewed during the loading process, necessitating a process to flag poor quality data. Furthermore, not all relevant information is collected via automation, and additional information needs to be manually entered. In order to find and analyze information rapidly, search tools such as spectral matching are needed to query the database. Browse and viewing capabilities are also required for analysis. Finally, it is necessary to track conclusions based on the information collected. Analysts from across the street and across the globe needed a simple unified way to view, compare and search crystalline phase information at every stage of development. A system was created to track, organize, and curate data related to crystalline phase discovery. The system can handle all information on phases, as it tracks spectra, tables, text, and images. Multiple sources are possible, as data are loaded during automation, manually from files, and manually via a Microsoft Excel-based entry tool. A spectral searching tool aids identification of novel crystalline phases. Additionally, a review process organizes all information on possible new phases to help ensure correct identification and maintain high quality analytical data. Users interact with a web application to load, browse, search, view, overlay, and review data, so it is readily available and simpler to manage.

4:15 Notebook Integration – What’s In It For Me?
Stephen Taylor, Ph.D., Director, Project & Process Optimization Systems, Process R&D, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute
An overview of the opportunities for ELN integration leveraging notebook content to support connectivity to existing systems and data transfer back to the ELN. Such integration can improve the users’ productivity, eliminate duplication of effort, eliminate errors, and provide context to data in disparate systems. Integration should go beyond supporting existing workflows and enable scientists to gain insights into their data. The factors that should be considered when integrating will be reviewed, including when to integrate and when not to integrate

4:45 Use of Symyx Notebook with External Partners
Jeffrey Christofferson, Symyx Notebook Program Team Leader, Product Research & Development, Eli Lilly and Company, Inc.
As organizations look to accomplish work in different ways, the issue of extending the supporting IT infrastructure to third party partner presents unique challenges. Technical as well as process limitations must be addressed to be able to move effectively to meet the demands of the mode of operation. As Eli Lilly and Company have taken our initial steps, perspectives will be offered on the obstacles that have been overcome and what future ones still remain. 

Friday, May 2, 2008

8:30am - 12:00pm Software Advisory Board (by invitation only)

Executive Session | Discovery Track | Product Demonstration | Birds of a Feather Breakout Discussions