Prof. Olivier Vandenberg - LHUB-ULB

Faculty of Medicine - Public Health School 

Olivier Vandenberg, MD, PhD is appointed Professor of Microbiology in the Public Health School and in the Faculty of Medicine of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). In addition, he is currently member of the WHO Advisory Group on Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (WHO-AGISAR). Most of his researches focus on emerging foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. Since 2000, he has supervised the consolidation of several microbiology laboratories in high and low resource settings. Besides this, he also collaborates with different manufacturers and research institutes in the development of new approaches for the diagnosis and control of infectious diseases.

New Laboratory Tools for Antimicrobial Resistance Challenges

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is currently considered as one of the greatest public health challenges of this century. Today, patients with suspected infections receive empirical treatment, often unguided by microbiology results, resulting in the overuse of antimicrobials, leading to the emergence of drug resistance and the rapidly decreasing inventory of effective antimicrobials. Emerging diagnostic technologies have the potential to improve this situation by fostering rapid and precise diagnosis and the early refinement of antibiotic therapy, making diagnosis central to the battle against AMR. This lecture discusses the advantages and limitations of new diagnostic tools in the diagnosis and control of AMR, with respect to cost and clinical utility.

Prof. dr. ir. Peter Van Eenoo - UGent

Department of Clinical chemistry, microbiology and immunology

Anti-doping laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) need to detect a broad range of prohibited substances present in low concentrations in biological matrices. To achieve this goal, chromatography-mass spectrometry methods and a range of immunological methods are being used.

In this presentation, an overview will be given how these laboratories achieve their goals and tackle the challenges they are confronted with. Additionally, the quality control measures implemented will be addressed.

Dr. Cédric Herry - Fabrilabo

Head of R&D department

Risk is everywhere in a laboratory. Therefore this work environment must be fitted with adapted health (air treatment), safety (adapted safety equipment), space (need of working space, storage, etc.) and ergonomic requirements.

Looking at various operating labs from a risk analysis point of view, we acknowledge 2 situations : underestimation of risks leads to needs of extra equipment or work in compromised safety ; overestimation, which seems to guarantee protection – hides in many cases oversized equipment with high energy consumption and sometimes unbalanced HVAC.

How to avoid these 2 situations ? In other words, how to evaluation chemical risk ? This can be performed following a methodic procedure, starting with an accurate analysis of the risks. Not only the type of chemicals in use must be taken into account, but also exposure of lab personal. Only a systematic analysis of the situation is the guarantee of the right choice of the safety equipment.

That said, containing the chemical danger is not the only way for long term safety.  Adopting good practices, following regulation in place, such as substitution of chemicals, reduction of quantities and emissions and users training is important.

Once the equipment has been installed, user must not be the only responsible for maintaining safety. Modern ventilated equipment are embedded with more and more technology to ensure protection, warn users in case of wrong usage or failure and keep data history. Periodical control and maintenance is also important. Controls apply to all mechanical and electronical compounds, such as ducts, inlet and outlet valves, sensors calibration, filters replacement. Maintenance is the only way to guarantee long term safety.

To sum up, majority of labs do not apply a method when choosing an equipment. Risk analysis, in reality, must be part of a permanent reflection. It should lead to equipment choice, improvement of operating procedures following good practices and regular maintenance.

Permanent changes in regulations, processes, knowledge must be taken into account to improve risk analysis and allow continuous improvement of protection.

Iwan de Koning - Janssen Pharmaceutica

Sr. Manager Maintainability at Janssen Research & Development

Lab supporting activities are changing permanently as there is still a trend towards outsourcing, resulting in outsourcing partners which play a key role in supporting daily, critical operations. People working in the labs find themselves confronted with a variety of internal as well as external partners they need to contact depending on their needs. Documents and information that were initially available prove difficult to find and are often spread across various systems. Processes, are often complex and not very transparent. Hence, optimizing the operational efficiency and performance of processes is key and critical for success.

In this presentation, I want to share improvement initiatives and concepts for the Lab Services Environment @J&J which have demonstrated value for scientists. These initiatives span a wide variety of activities going from ‘full life cycle management for equipment’ over ‘providing engineering and technology support to achieve business goals’ through setting up hybrid models of governance structures enabling true partnerships between internal and external partners resulting in optimal partner management. By acting as an active shaper and integrator in all these processes, our team is highly involved in shaping and evolving the state-of-the-art lab workspace of our scientists.

Prof. Jan Tytgat - KULeuven  

Head of Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology

The sensitive detection, accurate identification and precise dosage of a variety of chemical structures that are associated with Novel Psychoactive Substances, also known as NPS or substances that mimic the effects of controlled drugs but avoid legislation based on different chemical composition, including their hepatic metabolites in case of human recreational consumption and cases of overdose, are a true challenge today for the forensic toxicologist. Immunological techniques, for instance, have been around since many years, but they require significant redesign for NPS. Presumptive detection tools, such as popular color tests used in the field, are useful orientation tests, but need conformation by using of state-of-the art techniques such as gas or liquid chromatography with mass-spectrometry (resp. GC/MS and LC/MS, or often with MS in tandem), especially in a forensic context. The success of these techniques also depends heavily on the extraction techniques used, such as liquid-liquid, solid phase or ionic liquid based extractions, prior to the chromatographic analyses. Generally, one can follow a targeted (specific) or non-targeted (more general) analytical screening procedure, which may depend on the type of NPS one wants to identify. Fortunately, improvements in the detection capabilities and instrumental screening tools are constantly being made, and together with an increased awareness of NPS and the latest changes in legislation, it is legitimate to remain optimistic. However there is also no escape than to accept a continuing challenge of NPS exposure, knowing the increasing availability and occurrence of NPS today in all the chemical flavors they may possess, and beyond any doubt also tomorrow, and the role of NPS in social harm and overdose-related deaths. This presentation will focus on these challenges and propose some future directions.

Andy Vierstraete - UGent

Head of laboratory

Next generation sequencing (NGS) is a method that sequences millions of DNA fragments in parallel to determine (big parts of) the DNA or RNA sequence of an organism.  Several companies produce Next Generation Sequencing machines, each with their own working principle, pros and cons.  NGS has a broad range of possible applications in biology and in clinical practice.

In this presentation, I'm trying to explain the basics of the mostly used NGS systems, and give you an overview of possible applications in biology and clinical research.

With this fundament about Next Generation Sequencing, I hope it will be easier for you interact with others on it and that you can continue to build your own NGS knowledge.