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This track will highlight recent innovations in assay development and screening, spanning novel technologies, creative assay design, and impactful screening strategies. Presentations will focus on approaches aligned with next-generation therapeutic modalities and emerging mechanisms of action, addressing the challenges of more complex and less tractable targets. The role of AI in transforming assay development will be explored, including the move toward prediction-first, and data-driven design. Through practical case studies, speakers will showcase state of the-art cellular, biochemical, and biophysical assay platforms deployed in model systems of increasing biological complexity.

Automated process workflows underpin chemical and biological research, enabling both small? and large?molecule discovery and broader scientific advances. This track will share updates from the past year since SLAS2026 and explore emerging opportunities to improve productivity, data quality, and automation reliability. As automation expands further into laboratory execution, experimental design, and data analysis, sessions will examine the evolving role of scientists and technologists, including career pathways for automation and technology professionals. Real?world case studies will highlight successful implementations, challenges encountered, and practical lessons learned.

Attendees will learn from industry and academic leaders driving the next generation of cellular technologies for drug discovery, translational research, and precision medicine. This track spotlights how patient-derived cell models and New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) — including organoids, spheroids, co-cultures, and microphysiological systems — are providing more human-relevant, translationally predictive alternatives to traditional preclinical models across oncology, neuroscience, metabolic disease, and beyond.

Sessions will explore how these platforms are applied across the discovery and development process: from PK/PD and mechanism-of-action studies, to perturbation screens that move beyond classical dose-response and connect drug effects to cellular states and tissue-level phenotypes. Attendees will also gain insight into the rapidly maturing field of Functional Precision Medicine, where ex vivo drug response platforms built on patient-derived cells are being translated toward real-world clinical decision-making and patient-tailored therapy.

Whether you are developing novel preclinical models, designing perturbation screens to uncover mechanisms of response and resistance, or building functional assays to guide individual treatment decisions, this track offers practical frameworks, emerging data, and the cross-disciplinary connections needed to advance human-relevant biology from bench to bedside.

The life sciences industry has officially moved past exploratory pilots and entered a period of industrial-scale integration and operational maturity. Making meaningful progress in 2027 demands moving beyond mere prediction toward the implementation of prescriptive, mechanistic, and causal-aware systems capable of navigating astronomical biological and chemical complexity with minimal human intervention.

This track brings together technical experts to address the "generalization gap" in biological and chemical AI and facilitate the integration of computational power with biological reality. We will delve into critical technical frontiers encompassing mechanistic "gray-box" models, the deployment of multi-scale digital twins, and the realization of self-driving laboratories orchestrated by Large Action Models. Join fellow scientists and engineers for technically grounded discussions on scaling autonomous discovery, ensuring biological plausibility, and navigating the new regulatory landscape established by the FDA and EMA.

Micro- and nanotechnologies have become ubiquitous in biological and medical research because of their ability to control and interrogate environments at the scales of individual molecules, single cells, and more complex biological models (e.g., organoids). They have enabled new measurement modalities and innovative platforms that deliver greater precision, higher throughput, and previously inaccessible data, driving exciting discoveries across the life sciences. Although the adoption of these technologies in commercial workflows continues to grow, integrating them into established systems remains challenging. This track showcases both breakthrough discoveries from fundamental research and emerging micro- and nanotechnologies with the potential to advance lab automation and screening, as well as demonstrated nano/microtechnologies making the leap from research to real-world application. Together, these examples illuminate the path from research innovation to commercial impact.

Developing therapies for debilitating diseases with undruggable or intractable targets requires moving beyond traditional occupancy-driven pharmacology. This track highlights event-based strategies such as targeted protein degradation, alongside advances in AI/ML-enabled drug discovery and emerging modalities including RNA-based therapeutics and antibody–drug conjugates, to enhance efficacy and therapeutic index.