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00:00On Tomorrow's World Today, we explore the cutting-edge advances that are shaping four different worlds.
00:06The world of inspiration, where the wonders of the natural world amaze and inspire us.
00:11The world of creation, where ideas come to life from traditional arts.
00:15The world of innovation, where ideas and inventions move us all forward.
00:20The world of production, where innovations are mass-produced to improve our lives.
00:25From Inventionland World Headquarters, here's your host, George Davison.
00:30Ready to jump into a world where tomorrow's tech is today's reality?
00:35Welcome to Tomorrow's World Today.
00:38Around 5,000 years ago, humans began experimenting with plants and minerals.
00:44Discovering and testing early drugs, such as willow bark, to alleviate headache pain.
00:49You know, back then, trying to relieve a headache meant chugging a murky mixture of willow bark.
00:55Then, in the 1800s, alchemists began conducting experiments, probably because they noticed side effects.
01:03They must have been convinced that there had to be a better way than creating mysterious mixtures with no consistent promise that it's going to work for everyone.
01:13Now, eventually, they began lab testing to extract pure, safe compounds and developed consistent recipes that could be produced,
01:22along with a warning to some people who might have a bad reaction to that medicine.
01:28Now, of course, back then, there wasn't some large bank of human data.
01:32So, the results were, at best, chaotic.
01:36So, let's fast forward to today.
01:39We have warning labels on the back of all of our prescription bottles.
01:43For example, a label may tell us that we should take a medicine with food, or maybe not take it at all if you were pregnant.
01:50Lab testing helps to make sure that the medicines that we take are safe today,
01:56especially when a specific medicine is going to go out and scale on a national or international level.
02:03You've got to go out and collect and test all sorts of samples from around the world in a timely manner,
02:08and then analyze all this data to validate this new medicine.
02:13Can you imagine the complexity of doing all that?
02:15Now, I've heard that a global lab testing network system has been invented, and I'm intrigued.
02:22So, I'm going to send Greg to the world of innovation to explore it.
02:31At any one time, there are thousands of clinical trials being conducted around the world, resulting in tens of thousands of samples.
02:38Now, all of those samples have to be collected, transported, processed, analyzed, and cataloged correctly.
02:45And that's why we're here at LabConnect in Johnson City, Tennessee.
02:49We're going to meet with Chief Executive Officer Wes Wheeler and his team of experts
02:53to discuss innovative solutions to these challenges and more today and in tomorrow's world.
03:00Hi, Wes.
03:01Hi, Greg. Welcome to LabConnect.
03:03Thank you very much.
03:04I'm super excited to find out about everything that you do here.
03:06Let's kind of get an overall idea, though, of what it is that LabConnect is all about.
03:11You are a vital part of the drug development process.
03:14Tell me about that.
03:14Well, drugs are developed over a period of about 10 to 12 years, and there's a drug discovery portion,
03:21there's a drug development portion, and then there's a drug launch, approval and launch.
03:25We fit in the middle of that.
03:26LabConnect is a provider of central lab services.
03:30We work for our clients.
03:32Once the patients are recruited, we are able to bring lab kits to the patient's home or to the patient's clinic and take the blood, bring the blood back to the lab.
03:43The labs are local, typically.
03:45We will test the data from the blood, and then we bring the data back to a central location and deliver it to our clients.
03:51Now, operating labs like that around the country or around the world, that can be a really expensive proposition.
03:55How do you handle that?
03:56We have decided, because of the way drug development is done now, patients from around the world are required for clinical trials and for filing.
04:05So we have to find labs around the world that are local, because the blood has to find its way to a testing lab within a certain amount of hours, 24 to 48 hours.
04:15So we find local labs around the world that are close to the patients.
04:19And then we can bring the data back to a central location, back here, for example, collect the data for the delivery to the client.
04:26Okay, great.
04:27Well, I'd love to learn more about that.
04:28Yeah, let's talk about that now.
04:31Wes, you mentioned that you have laboratories all around the world.
04:35How do you find these labs to work with?
04:37It starts with a protocol.
04:39Our client will tell us exactly where the patients have to come from.
04:42That varies from protocol to protocol, from trial to trial.
04:46So we will aggregate a lot of that information and start to decide what regions of the world we have to have labs in.
04:53Over the years, all the trials we've done, we now know the clusters are where the patients typically will come from for a global trial.
05:00So we have, based on that data, selected seven regions of the world.
05:04For example, Australia, Europe, of course, North Asia, the U.S., Latin America.
05:09The labs are selected to be close to the patients, close to the clinics, so that we make sure we get those samples back to the lab within 48 hours.
05:16Well, how can you be sure that those labs that you're working with all around the world are following the protocols that LabConnect needs in order to make sure those samples are collected the right way?
05:25No, it's a great question.
05:26I think you have to realize every lab is different.
05:28They're all owned by different people and different companies.
05:31They have different equipment.
05:32We have to make sure that the equipment, even if the equipment's not exactly the same, that the test is done the same way, that we can, the assay, which is what we call it, is done in a consistent manner, so that the data is collected in a very consistent way, that the parameters, the data output, the data format comes to us in a certain way that we can harmonize the data for our clients.
05:55Well, this seems like a fairly large logistical undertaking, and I know that you have a nimble approach.
06:01Tell me more about that.
06:02Patients could be anywhere in the world.
06:05We're collecting their blood or their urine or some biospecimen.
06:09It could be a tumor cell.
06:11It could be a biopsy.
06:12That data, that sample, has to get to the lab within 48 hours.
06:16We have to be nimble enough to be able to be at the location where the sample is being drawn and have the courier collect it, get it to the airline, get it to the aircraft in time.
06:26The aircraft has to be on time, and then we have to have a courier on the other end to take it to the lab.
06:30That's what we call nimble.
06:32There's a lot of moving parts involved.
06:34Now, I know that one of the really important ways that you make sure that the labs are doing things the way LabConnect needs them to be done
06:40is with the specialized testing kits that you assemble right here, and I'd really like to get a look at that happening.
06:45I'm going to have Julia tell you about that now.
06:47Let's go.
06:48Sounds great.
06:48I just met with Chief Executive Officer Wes Wheeler to get an overview of what LabConnect does.
07:16Now, it's time to get into the nuts and bolts of things with Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, Julia Tarasenko.
07:23Hi, Julia.
07:24Hi.
07:25Nice to meet you.
07:26Nice to meet you.
07:27So, Julia, in talking to Wes, I realized that one of the most important parts of making sure that the various labs follow the LabConnect protocols
07:34is the assembly of the specialized test kits.
07:37And he tells me that you're the person to show me how that's done.
07:40Yeah, absolutely.
07:40With the specialized test kit, it's very important to successful clinical trials.
07:44So, let me tell you and show you how it's done.
07:59Julia, there are a lot of different components here.
08:02How do you determine what goes into a particular test kit?
08:05So, test kit is a part of our study design.
08:09So, the protocol, the individual protocol will determine what kind of kits we use and when.
08:14All kits will be custom.
08:16They will be custom to a visit and they will be, in many cases, custom to the patient.
08:21Every component will be pre-labeled.
08:23So, when the side use them, we know which test belongs to which patient.
08:28So, I will give you an example.
08:31This is one of the tubes we can use.
08:34So, it's going to be very important how much blood we will draw.
08:37Even the color of the tube will be very important and will be protocol-specific.
08:42So, we can have kits that contain 10 components and we can have kits that contain 50 or even more
08:48for highly specialized oncology trials as a part of the personalized medicine development.
08:54Okay, well, I know that the way these kits are then put together is really important to minimize errors
09:00and make sure that the data all comes back to LabConnect the way that you want it.
09:04So, can I get a look at somebody putting one of the kits together?
09:07Yeah, absolutely.
09:07Let's have a look.
09:10So, this is part of the assembly area for our clinical kits.
09:14But what we also increasingly do here is what we call companion diagnostic.
09:18That kind of kit determines if the patient is eligible to take certain drugs.
09:22With the rise of personalized medicine, the drug that's suitable to you might not work on me.
09:27So, these kits help to determine that eligibility.
09:30And here we have April who can help us through the process.
09:33Hi, April.
09:33Hi.
09:34So, this is an example of our clinical trial kits.
09:37Each kit is laid out in the order of the draw for ease of use at the sites.
09:40So, when a clinician receives this, they can actually see they go tube by tube right down the line
09:45and then they put it back in the same order.
09:47So, when it comes into the lab for processing, it's exactly laid out like this.
09:50Exactly.
09:51How many kits does a facility like this produce?
09:53So, a facility like this produces about 30,000 kits per month with well over 300,000 kits a year made globally.
10:00That is really impressive.
10:01Well, April, thank you very much.
10:02So, Julia, I guess at this point the next thing for me to see is the lab itself so I can see a kit come back in and head into processing.
10:08Can we do that?
10:09Absolutely.
10:10Follow me.
10:10All right.
10:11Thank you, April.
10:12So, this is our sample processing area and this is where we prepare our samples before we send them out to our partner labs for subsequent testing.
10:25And Dr. Zarin here will walk us through the process of what's happening here.
10:29Dr. Zarin, nice to meet you.
10:30Nice to meet you.
10:31So, tell me a little bit about this portion of the facility.
10:33So, a lot of the samples that are collected during clinical trials have a stability of roughly 24 to 48 hours.
10:39However, sometimes that stability is as low as six hours.
10:43So, here we receive samples within that critical time frame for stability and we isolate either white blood cells through peripheral blood mononuclear cell extraction or circulating tumor DNA or genomic DNA.
10:57And we extract those isolates and freeze them during that critical time period where we can then further send those out into third-party labs where they will analyze those cells and that DNA for further interpretation.
11:09That is really impressive.
11:11Thank you very much, Dr. Zarin.
11:12Julia, what else do you have for me?
11:13We have sample receiving now, so follow me.
11:16Dr. Zarin, thank you very much.
11:17Take care.
11:30So, Julia, we're in the receiving and accession area and what we're looking at here, this is a part of your new sustainability effort.
11:37Tell me about this.
11:37So, just to put it in perspective, we're receiving in a session about 100,000 biospecimens per month.
11:44And as an industry, they're all arriving in the styrofoam boxes like this.
11:48This helps us to keep an insulation, which means the sample stays within the right temperature.
11:53What we have been doing is replacing styrofoam completely with this fully biodegradable and recyclable packaging made entirely out of paper.
12:01So, as you can see here, the insulation is made entirely of the pressed paper.
12:06And this is going to be as efficient as the styrofoam?
12:09Yeah, absolutely.
12:10And we have manufacturing data to support that, and we have taken it one step further.
12:14And we tested this packaging in a real-world condition, and the results come back extremely strong.
12:19And basically, at the end of its life, this box will become another box.
12:23Correct.
12:24It will be fully recycled and becomes another box.
12:27Julia, thank you very much.
12:28And thank you for spending the time with us.
12:30Of course.
12:30My pleasure.
12:31Thank you so much.
13:01So, Charles, tell me, why is LabConnect a lab like no other?
13:06No, great question, Greg.
13:08So, LabConnect is transforming the clinical trial space.
13:12And the thing that makes us different from any company out there is that we can work across any lab partners worldwide.
13:17And what this means is that depending on whether you are in Africa, in Asia, in the U.S., we can actually take your data, ingest it, and create a data set that you can read through our client portal from that perspective.
13:30At the core of this transformation is what we call LabConnector.
13:33And what it does is it allows us to harmonize the information from the data test results that we receive from across the world into consistent data that we can provide to our clients.
13:42So, essentially, you're decentralizing the traditional model, but that's unifying you globally.
13:48Absolutely.
13:48But at the same time, I think what's important is that we try as much as possible to be as close as possible to where the patients are.
13:54And I think that's the core value of what LabConnector can offer, which is to work with companies everywhere in the world, as close as possible to the patients, so we can do clinical trials at any place in the world.
14:05Well, that seems to present some pretty sizable logistical challenges to work around the globe like that.
14:10There's a lot of challenges, but with our technology that we call sample logistics with Hawkeye technology, we can address that question.
14:17Let me show you how.
14:18Please do.
14:19Now we're talking.
14:26Well, Charles, I really want to take a deep dive on this technology.
14:30Tell me more about sample logistics.
14:31Absolutely.
14:32I'm so excited about our sample logistics with Hawkeye technology.
14:35So, what it is, it's actually comprised of three different technologies that we've put together into one solution.
14:40One part of it is about a mobile app that we provide to our site collection partners to make sure that they have a way of inputting information on the sample that they've collected,
14:48on a mobile device.
14:50It allows us to make sure there's no human error in terms of writing.
14:53What they can do is take a picture and type in information on a mobile app so that information is provided to us simultaneously.
14:59The second one is about RFID.
15:02An RFID allows us to actually track exactly where the sample is in the network.
15:06So, what happens is that that sample travels from a LabConnect site to the site collection, back to LabConnect, and then to a lab partner.
15:14The RFID allows us to determine and detect if the sample tube has actually arrived at our facility, as an example.
15:21And then the third one is courier integration.
15:25And what we do is we work with many companies, courier partners out there, to make sure that we're able to gather information from them on notification.
15:32It allows us to determine if there's a problem with a specific sample or a route from that perspective.
15:37So, basically, you're turning your lab partners, everybody at LabConnect, and even your couriers into one system where they're all working together to make sure that the samples show up when they're still viable because that window is so critical, making sure that it gets to where it's supposed to be.
15:51Exactly.
15:52And that's what we're doing.
15:53Excellent.
15:54Well, now, as we look to the future and what this technology might bring as we move ahead, everybody talks about AI, and it's a big word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
16:04How do you see that being integrated into a system like this?
16:07We do a lot of AI applications and agentic AIs across the company, but let me give an example of its application in sample logistics.
16:14So, one example of this route optimization.
16:17And what that means is that, as you know, you and I travel, right?
16:19Sometimes there's a problem with weather patterns or sometimes even, like, political situations, right?
16:25What we're able to do is overlay that information of weather patterns with the courier notifications and then allows us to create what I call next best action.
16:33It provides our team members with information that allows them to determine what's the next best route if a specific route has a problem or issue.
16:41So, when it comes to that critical stabilization period where a sample has to get to a particular place in time, this is an aid in doing that?
16:49Absolutely.
16:50And I guess this is one of the things that makes LabConnect.
16:52A lab like no other.
16:54Charles, thank you very much. This has been great.
16:55Thank you very much, Greg.
16:56Back at Inventionland, Wes Wheeler, LabConnect CEO, is meeting up with George Davison to discuss lab testing innovations in tomorrow's world.
17:22Hey, Wes. Welcome to Inventionland.
17:24George, great to be here. Thanks very much.
17:26Well, I was waiting for you to get here because Greg was telling me all about this great technology you guys are working on.
17:31I was hoping you could expand on that for me today.
17:34Yeah, I think of us as a tech company, not just a lab company.
17:38So, we are a company that doesn't own labs, but we do pretty much everything else required in a clinical trial.
17:45So, we'd make the kits, we set up the systems, we collect the blood, we bring the blood back to our partner labs, and then we process that testing data so we can turn that into a technical file for our clients to file for new drug medicines.
18:00We also track the movement of the samples from all over the world into our partner labs in real time.
18:06And how are you doing that?
18:08Like, if you're, how are you tracking all of this through the physical world?
18:12We've found an RFID technology that's working.
18:14We're going to put an RFID tag on every tube.
18:18And tubes are how we collect the blood.
18:19So, every tube will have an RFID tag, and every time that tag hits a reader, we'll know exactly where it is.
18:26That makes sense.
18:27Yeah.
18:28So, because there's labs all over the world that you're working with, somehow or another you must have invented a system that ties everything together.
18:36So, think of us, again, as a tech company, connecting all the dots.
18:39So, all the systems we have, whether it's collecting data, collecting information, collecting sample locations, locations in the freezers when we store them, all that data will be connected together in one total system.
18:51Many different systems, but connected together in one digital format.
18:55Well, you know, Wes, it sounds a little like the technology is moving in the direction of kind of like a rideshare company or a B&B.
19:03Yeah, very much so.
19:04So, we don't own the labs.
19:05We don't need to own the labs.
19:07We partner with the labs.
19:08We're located next to the labs, but we don't have to own them.
19:11It's very similar to a B&B or a rideshare company where they don't own the fleet.
19:15They don't own the rooms, but they own the client, and they own the data.
19:20Very similar to what we're doing.
19:21We own the patients in terms of how they're recruited for a clinical trial, and, of course, we own the data that comes out of the blood testing that we do with our partner labs.
19:31That makes sense.
19:32And so, if I'm looking out into the future, I mean, it sounds to me like by tying all this together with this system, you're going to speed up the process of making this happen, which is quite an invention.
19:44But won't it also add to the, like all the other pharmaceutical companies that need your services?
19:50It's like adding to the invention process itself for new medicines.
19:54Clinical trials are getting a lot more complicated now.
19:56So, the more that we can digitize and tech enable the movement of blood samples and testing data, the faster we can get those testing data into the file for approval of new medicine.
20:08Well, thanks for making a better way for all of us.
20:12Thank you for having me today.
20:14Well, everybody, that's another edition of Tomorrow's World Today.
20:17We'll see you next time.
20:19So, how about we check out one of our innovation labs?
20:21I'll do that.
20:21All right.
20:22Yeah, we just started building these new labs.
20:30And remember, Tomorrow's World is where inspiration and creation drive innovation and production.
20:38See you next time.
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