Brooks Automation To Unify Services Under Azenta Life Sciences

Brooks Automation has announced that its Brooks Life Sciences Services and Products businesses will be rebranded as Azenta Life Sciences, to integrate its genomics and analytical expertise and storage automation and informatics services among others. The company aims to support life sciences organizations around the globe in their efforts to discover, develop and deliver effective therapies faster.

Technology Networks spoke to Linda De Jesus, senior vice president and chief commercial officer at Azenta Life Sciences to find out more about the announcement and how this will help drive innovation with greater speed and accuracy.

Kate Robinson (KR): How has Brooks Automation evolved to meet the changing needs of the life sciences industry, and how has this led to the launch of Azenta Life Sciences?

Linda De Jesus (LDJ): Over the last ten years, we have developed and expanded our capabilities as a life sciences organization through multiple strategic acquisitions. We’ve brought in amazing companies with unique capabilities that have built the robust portfolio of products and services that we have today. We now have the opportunity to make that portfolio even stronger by uniting under a single brand – Azenta Life Sciences.

The offers our customers know us for today will all remain.

• Genomics & Analytical Services
• Consumable & Instruments
• Storage Automation & Logistics
• Sample Sourcing
• Data & Informatics
• Consultative Services

We are also expanding our expertise to support our customers within the three development phases

• Research & Development
• Preclinical & Clinical
• Manufacturing & Distribution

For existing customers, this provides confidence in our ability to continue delivering what they know and expect. For prospective customers, we’ll showcase all our expansive and integrated capabilities. Under our new brand we’ll be able to better address customer needs and empower their work.

KR: How will the creation of Azenta Life Sciences help to drive innovation and support the development of new critical therapies?

LDJ: Azenta is a leading provider of life science services and products supporting the analysis, storage and management of biological and chemical compound samples for pharmaceutical, biotech, clinical, healthcare and academic institutions worldwide.

Our customers are helping solve some of the world’s greatest challenges, and there is an unrelenting demand for a partner that can protect their precious samples in research and clinical trials along with offering deep expertise, speed, integrity and trust.

To that end, we have brought together leading capabilities across genomics, cryogenic storage, automation and informatics. We are dedicated to sample exploration and management at every stage of the lifespan from planning and collecting to storage and analytics. All with the goal to help customers drive innovation with greater speed and accuracy.

KR: As high-throughput technologies enable researchers to process an increasing number of samples, how important is it to adopt end-to-end solutions from sample sourcing management through to data management?

LDJ: As the frontier of advanced therapeutics continue to develop faster safe and effective therapeutics, companies in life sciences industries are required to improve and scale operational efficiency through partnership with industries experts to automate, outsource and develop innovative processes from sample sourcing, ananalysis, management and storage. Companies need to be able to have reliable and accessible data management and automation solutions.

Our new strategic focus as Azenta Life Sciences will enable us to better serve our customers with scale, end-to-end solutions and robust capabilities that will drive innovation and growth with greater speed and precision.

Azenta’s intense focus on life sciences couldn’t have been better timed. What makes Azenta unique is its comprehensive end-to-end solution for sample management that focuses on chemical and biological samples used from research, clinical and preclinical to therapeutic delivery. This type of comprehensive lifecycle management of samples is vital to the success of some of today’s most exciting research, like cell-based therapy, regenerative medicines, genomic analysis and more. Azenta delivers customized solutions to safely handle any stage of a research sample’s lifespan – including sample planning, collection, transport, processing, storage, analytics, retrieval and disposal – and its solutions specifically target the growing demand for exceptional quality control from clinical labs.

KR: Could you talk about some of the solutions and services that will be provided by Azenta and in what areas will these solutions be utilized?

LDJ: With the advent of biologics and personalized medicine, biological samples have become critical assets to the success of drug and therapy pipelines, and the proper management and protection of these samples has gained increased importance to our customers. We believe this trend has created a sizable market opportunity for Azenta to provide comprehensive sample management, cell therapy and genomic solutions. Since the successful mapping of the full human genome at the turn of this century, the market for genomic services has grown in support of research in biologic drug development, personalized medicine and cell/gene therapy.

Our customer list numbers in the thousands and we address only a fraction of the industry.

We serve the largest customers in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry, the most advanced research hospitals performing clinical research and therapy development, as well as some of the newest and leading-edge start-ups in the biotech space.

We also serve academic and government institutions, with industry expertise in biobanking and biospecimen automated storage.

Linda De Jesus was speaking to Kate Robinson, Editorial Assistant for Technology Networks