Collaborating and Innovating in Biopharma: Workflow and Sample Management
We are thrilled to welcome Labforward to the Tetra Partner Network and to share a recent conversation with CEO and Co-founder, Simon Bungers. As researchers look for more innovative and efficient ways to manage their workflows, Labforward offers a way to link data silos and help to eliminate costly, error-prone data transfers.
Please tell us a little bit about your background.
My professional background is in molecular biology. After studying in Germany, the United States, and Italy, I spent four years in the laboratory while doing my Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Goettingen, Germany.
After finishing my Ph.D., I joined LEK Consulting, an international consulting firm, before founding my first e-commerce startup, which was successfully sold in 2013. In 2013, I founded Labfolder with Florian Hauer, a research colleague from my Ph.D. days. Since beginning my role as a startup CEO, I have been operational in almost every position in the company. I designed the initial product, ran marketing campaigns, and did sales. I raised money from investors, hired and managed employees, guided and structured teams, and led the company toward new and evolving goals.
I’m always happy to support and advise great young founders because there is always something new I can learn from them.
In a few sentences, please describe Labforward and why you started the company.
I co-founded Labforward because, as a researcher at the Max Planck Society, I saw the need to build a trusted ecosystem of connected laboratory teams, data, devices, and processes. We want to enable researchers to work with the most comprehensive datasets allowing them to generate more reliable results faster. Labforward supports laboratory teams to make groundbreaking discoveries and deliver innovative, high-quality products.
We want to enable researchers to work with the most comprehensive datasets allowing them to generate more reliable results faster.
Tell us about your product suite: Labfolder, Labregister, and Laboperator. What makes each offering unique, and what does each product solve for your customers?
With digital tools for laboratories, Labforward increases productivity, efficiency, and data integrity across many research disciplines - from R&D to biotech and pharmaceutical companies, QC laboratories, and clinical research institutes. Labforward’s products include the user-friendly electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) Labfolder, laboratory execution system (LES) Laboperator, and laboratory inventory management system Labregister. Each product can be used as stand-alone software, on-premise, in the cloud or together as a software suite. This unique offering not only enables the researcher to collect, store and handle data (with Labfolder & Labregister) but also to automate entire labs, monitor processes, and guide researchers through experimental workflows in a connected and digitalized lab (Laboperator).
How are your products helping customers increase productivity, efficiency, and data integrity in R&D and QC laboratories?
Our products enable customers to walk away from paper-based research documentation and data silos in their labs. Researchers spend up to 60% of their valuable time handling data rather than performing research - this changes with the use of our products1. Data can be easily retrieved, shared with colleagues, and stored safely. We address customers’ QC concerns by managing access to instruments and maintaining an audit trail of all the data. The usage of our solutions streamlines their day-to-day processes significantly.
Our products enable customers to walk away from paper-based research documentation and data silos in their labs.
How is Labforward creating the operating system of the laboratory by connecting data, devices, and researchers, and how does this impact your vision for the laboratory of the future?
Labforward is an agile, international and dynamic company. Presently, we have 85+ employees from 30+ nationalities, located at our headquarters in Berlin, Germany or working remotely worldwide. Labforward products have gained more than 50,000 users across large R&D organizations, biotech SMEs, large pharma and chemistry corporations, and academic labs in 21 countries worldwide. We are trusted by customers such as Roche, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, BASF, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Nkarta Therapeutics, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. By working with our customers and partners, we develop our products according to their specific needs, add new features and ensure that the goal of a connected lab of the future becomes a reality for them. Close communication with our customers and partners creates a community where we are constantly exchanging ideas, collaborating, and creating a future vision together.
Close communication with our customers and partners creates a community where we are constantly exchanging ideas, collaborating, and creating a future vision together.
What is the value of belonging to the Tetra Partner Network?
The biggest value for us in joining the Tetra Partner Network is the ability to help more scientists achieve their scientific goals. We believe that only a network of capable partners (and no single entity) can help laboratories worldwide to become better, faster, and more efficient in the work they are doing. By joining the Tetra Partner Network, we become a valuable asset towards the larger goal of providing scientists with the digital toolset they need.
We believe that only a network of capable partners (and no single entity) can help laboratories worldwide to become better, faster, and more efficient in the work they are doing.
Read the TetraScience / Labforward press release.
[1] CrowdFlower, “2016 Data Science Report”, https://visit.appen.com/rs/416-ZBE-142/images/CrowdFlower_DataScienceReport_2016.pdf