Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) is a scientific and professional society formed in 2010 as a merger between the

Association for Laboratory Automation The Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA) was a scientific association, organized as a nonprofit 501(c)(3), for the medical, chemical and biological laboratory automation industry. It was the publisher of the peer-reviewed scientific journal ...

and the

Society for Biomolecular Sciences The Society for Biomolecular Sciences (SBS) was an international learned society, originally established as the Society for Biomolecular Screening in 1994, for scientists and technologists in academia, government and industry, headquartered in Danb ...

. The mission of SLAS is "to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building." SLAS has its global office near

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, as well as offices in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Since 2014, its annual meetings are held alternately in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

in even-numbered years, and in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, in odd-numbered years. For 2021, the SLAS International conference will be held in a virtual format, online. Starting in 2022, the East coast location for the conference will be held in Boston, MA.

Purpose

SLAS is organized and operated exclusively for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes as defined by

Internal Revenue Code The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 ...

Section ("IRC") 501(c) (3). In particular, SLAS's exempt purpose is to advance laboratory science and technology through education, scientific research, and to serve as a public forum for the exchange of information related to laboratory science and technology.

History

In early 2009, the Society for Biomolecular Sciences (SBS) and the Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA) began discussing ways the organizations could work together to further their respective and similar missions. These discussions led SBS and ALA to recognize that coordinating programs and activities offered many significant advantages. Accordingly, SBS and ALA assigned a task force to determine the viability of an SBS-ALA amalgamation. The task force unanimously concluded that both SBS and ALA could be strengthened by merging into a new entity that advanced their common missions and goals while respecting and protecting their unique individual histories and identities. As of March 15, 2010, the two organizations publicly announced that they proposed to merge SBS and ALA into one organization, which would be "dedicated to advancing scientific research and discovery through laboratory technology". As of May 5, 2010, both memberships officially authorized the merger with more than 95% of the votes cast in favor of the plan. The inspectors for the proxy voting process reported that SBS and ALA exceeded quorum requirements by 124% and 218%, respectively, and certified the results as valid.

Publications

SLAS publishes two scientific journals, '' SLAS Technology'' and '' SLAS Discovery'', in partnership with

SAGE Publications SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

. ''SLAS Technology'' was published from 1996-2010 as the ''Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation'' and from 2011-2016 as the ''Journal of Laboratory Automation'' (JALA).''SLAS Discovery'' was published from 1996-2016 as the ''Journal of Biomolecular Screening''. Special collections of SLAS Technology and SLAS Discovery have been published in December of 2020, which are available online as open-access articles for research related to COVID-19.

References

External links

SLAS web site

Journal of Biomolecular Screening web site

Journal of Laboratory Automation web site
{{authority control Scientific societies based in the United States Organizations established in 2010 Organizations based in Chicago 2010 establishments in Illinois