My name is Robyn Laskowski, and I work for LGC or Biosearch, and I run the North America Lab Services groups. We currently have one location in Middleton, and another in Gainesville—though that one will only be active a little bit longer.

Let me center us on LGC for a moment. LGC has been serving the scientific community for 180 years. It originated from the UK’s Laboratory of the Government Chemist and is now owned by a private equity company. Our mission is to partner with customers to find novel and critical solutions that help diagnose, treat, feed, and advance programs—all in service of protecting a growing global population, under our guiding principle of “Science for a Safer World.”

I’m part of the Diagnostics and Genomics division, and within that, our Laboratory Services group.

We support customers across various sectors—breeding applications, academic institutions, museums, and more. Our core service is to take sample to data, helping clients get the data they need to advance their research or manufacturing goals. We prioritize high-quality, cost-effective, and fast turnaround services.

When looking at LGC’s genotyping portfolio, we offer a variety of chemistries and automation options. The services component especially highlights technologies such as:

• AmpliSeq (AmSeq): An amplicon-based sequencing kit we launched last year at PEG.

• FlexSeq: A probe-based hybridization sequencing platform.

• CaptureSeq.

• Standard GBS (Genotyping by Sequencing).

• Whole Genome Sequencing.

We help customers determine which platform fits their goals by learning what information they need and why.

Last year, LGC announced the formation of two Centers of Excellence for lab services: one in Middleton, Wisconsin (just outside Madison) and one in Berlin, Germany. We continue to offer Sanger sequencing, which remains a steady and strong part of our operations. But we’ve also expanded with more advanced offerings, driven by customer needs.

A key area of growth has been in mid-density genotyping—for customers needing whole genome prediction or screening with a larger data density than single SNP endpoints can provide.

As we expanded globally, we realized we had to harmonize our equipment and workflows across locations. While each lab had similar but distinct systems, moving toward a global infrastructure required method harmonization, improving both workflow dependability and sample throughput. Our capacity increased from thousands of samples per week to tens of thousands, and we are targeting over 100,000 samples per month globally. Our workflow must handle a wide range—from customers submitting 100 to 20,000 samples per month—efficiently and cost-effectively.

That’s where Lynx came into play.

I had experience using Lynx in a previous role and knew its capabilities. So I reached out to Toby and the Dynamic Devices team to explore integrating it into LGC. I saw several quick wins right away:

• LM1800: The largest system available, crucial for scaling. With tip boxes, it accommodates 48 plates, provides walk-away time, and allows technicians to focus on hands-on tasks while the system runs.

• VDP Head: A game-changer in reducing time spent on processes like quantification and normalization due to its independent channels.

• 384-well head: Still a backbone of our work for rearraying and additions into 384-well plates, especially for high-volume tasks.

• LIMS integration: Files can move between Lynx and our LIMS seamlessly, improving tracking and traceability. It also automates steps, removing the human error factor.

• Method harmonization: With our global footprint, we now normalize plates consistently across locations, making troubleshooting more effective.

• Barcode utilization: Barcode scanners on Lynx track all steps in the process. Methods are written to stop if mismatches occur, ensuring traceability—a crucial part of chain of custody for clients.

Here’s an image of the VDP Head, showing different volumes of blue dye in the tips and the very large deck layout, customized in LGC teal.

A video of the VDP Head running illustrates how much it has improved technicians’ quality of life. Compared to our previous automation, the VDP Head cut quantification and normalization time by 75%—a significant win. Even our German colleagues, known for high standards, praised the efficiency and accuracy.

The Lynx system also excels in rearraying from 96-well to 384-well plates, offering precision, speed, and scale. It’s a “set it and forget it” process—low maintenance and highly reliable. Compared to our older equipment, crashes and unrecoverable errors are nearly eliminated. Most issues now are resolved remotely by engineers within hours instead of waiting a week for onsite help.

Overall, integrating Lynx helped us increase sample throughput by 2.5x across global labs.

These were fast wins, and there’s more ahead. What excites me is the future opportunities as we continue collaborating with Dynamic Devices.

• Miniaturization: Can we go smaller than 384-well plates to push even more samples through and reduce costs further?

• SpeedX Lightning: A tissue extraction chemistry from LGC, capable of going from sample to DNA in five minutes. Dynamic Devices has enabled SpeedX Lightning to run on its manifold. Toby and Abby presented this collaboration at PEG, showing sequential processing and full deck utilization for high-throughput extractions.

• AmpliSeq One (AmSeq One): Another LGC product, announced earlier this year. We’re working with Dynamic to pre-validate methods on Lynx, giving customers proven, trusted workflows. This builds confidence in our solutions and strengthens our partnership with Dynamic.