Molecular Devices

Dan O’Connor

Dan O'Connor is based out of Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area and works at Molecular Devices as VP Drug Discovery, Western Markets.   Mr. Dan O’Connor has been associated with Molecular Devices for the last eight years and has 22 years of overall experience in microscopy, imaging, and workflow solutions.

What are the trends and challenges you are witnessing in the synthetic biology space today?

Mainly I would like to focus the discussion on the application of synthetic biology in the workflows in medicine relating to plasma preparation, cell engineering or Car-T, and also in 2D and 3D organoid models. Some of the challenges that we are facing are threefold; scalability, standardization, and the enormous size of the data that needs to be processed and analyzed. In terms of scalability, in plasmid preparation specifically, the yield is very low. Scalability and reproducibility in the medical sector need automation and intelligent workflows that only Molecular Devices offer as solutions in the modern day. As for standardization, we see customers manually writing down their lab processes.

To this end, we have the capability to facilitate our customers to scale this with automation, electric notebooks, and smart integrated feedback loops. All this data is tracked and verified for things like monoclonal verification and clone workflows, which are sent to the FDA as a data packet for approval and standardization. In terms of data volume management, we have tried to tackle this challenge. However, given the vastness of data and the industry-wide challenge, there doesn't seem to be any good solution available in this aspect. We do offer some AI and ML solutions, but the medical sector is very new to these. A significant indication of expansion for me would be solving this data management and integration issue. This will help the industry to grow to greater heights.

How do you think has the synthetic biology space evolved over the years, now that you have mentioned the challenges and trends of the space?

Our strategic vision over the last couple of years has been focused on cell line development, clone workflows, and 3D organoid workflows. Given the challenges I've mentioned earlier, our main mission is to provide customers with the tools that help them to deal with these challenges. To deal with scalability and standardization, we now offer fully automated turnkey workflows for both 2D and 3D types of models and workflows. For cell line development and clone workflows, we have turnkey solutions that our customers buy today that provide all of the data generation and analysis in one seamless, easy step.

How do you envision this space in the next twelve to eighteen months?

Artificial intelligence will help the synthetic biology sector grow to a vast extent in terms of identifying small molecular compounds in drug discovery or certain microbes that have a metabolic pathway. In the next twelve to eighteen months, I envision that automation will become much more streamlined. For example, the computer in its initial days of the invention would take up the size of a room; now, one can fit it in the palm of their hand. The miniaturizing of technology into a smaller and more convenient footprint will help make a difference in the synthetic biology industry in the coming years by tackling complex workflows and huge workflows that take up multiple instruments.

Are there any particular projects that you could talk to me about, you know, in the space of synthetic biology as the VP of your organization?

We are constantly working on new product introductions and new platforms. We are working on streamlining our existing product line in terms of miniaturizing so that they can occupy a smaller footprint. We are also working in Molecular Devices with Danaher Corporation, IDBS, which works on data management and analysis and bioinformatics of cell line development and synthetic biology workflows. At IDBS, we are working on pathways to integrate IDBS's software into our instruments and form a correlation between how a customer may work out synthetic biology workflow. Other than that, we were working on improved and next-gen colony picker systems and monoclonal verification systems, specifically directed at the field of synthetic biology, that will help this sector in the years to come with the AI solutions we're developing.

How some of those current CLD products are worked into the OIC?

Last year in April, we created an Ogranoid Innovation Centre in San Jose, which has been the centerpiece for customer collaboration to try out new 3D biology technologies. In the last year and a half, we have added our cell engineering capabilities to this center to open up new avenues for gene editing approaches like CRISPR. This helps in more stable organoid production for drug discovery or synthetic meat production for cloning. In the near future, keeping the Organoid Innovation Centre as a base, we are planning on converting multiple instrument usage to smaller footprints that have the same capabilities for cell engineering, monoclonal verification, and organoid production.

Lastly, what advice do you want to give to the budding professionals in the field today?

I did not have a clear direction when I was nearing the end of my college career, but today the advice I can offer is to be passionate and proactive for passion, whether it is for a certain branch of science, be it synthetic biology or the synthetic meat revolution. There are several companies that facilitate a variety of opportunities. You could be interested in the commercial side of things and get into customer management, or you could be into bench science, revolutionizing various types of workflows. Your area of interest could also be leading scientists in academia. The main focus should be on identifying your passion and then being proactive about going out there to pursue it.