2021 Americas Sample Management Hybrid Symposium

Ms Moana Simpson is the Manager of Compounds Australia, and has over 20 years’ experience in providing support for drug discovery research within Australia and the UK, both in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry. Ms Simpson was instrumental in the initial development and subsequent growth of Compounds Australia from its inception to now a fully operational and busy compound management facility. Ms Simpson holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours and a Graduate Diploma in Project Management; her expertise is primarily in the areas of chemistry and biochemistry.

Lane Milde is a Senior Scientist supporting laboratory automation and liquid handling workflows and instrumentation for Compound Management & Distribution at Pfizer within Worldwide Research & Development under Discovery Sciences in Groton, CT. He has been at Pfizer for 10 years and has over 18 years of experience in highly automated laboratories within academic, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical settings. Lane started his career at the University of Wisconsin working as a scientist in molecular biology and high-throughput screening. He spent several years at a small biotechnology company developing automated in-vitro diagnostic devices before joining Pfizer in 2012. In his current role, he is responsible for managing automated microplate and liquid handling instrumentation in support of sample management for early drug discovery. This includes the management of an instrumentation quality control program, maintenance and troubleshooting, LIMS integration, and equipment succession planning as well as developing and maintaining automated workflows and solutions supporting a wide range of sample management processes.

"Marybeth Burton is Executive Director, Discovery Sample Management at Merck in Rahway, NJ, USA.  Marybeth leads Merck’s global Discovery Sample Management and is responsible for small molecule and peptide compound management, high throughput purification, commercial chemical inventory management, and discovery chemistry operations.  Her group monitors compound collection quality and participates in efforts to continuously improve both stewardship and composition of Merck's small molecule compound collection.  Marybeth has been involved with process optimization efforts and development of new workflows to support changing sample management needs resulting from globalization of drug discovery efforts.  Marybeth and her team recently completed a multiyear major infrastructure upgrade which includes new automation platforms and processes for small molecule and peptide sample management.

Prior to her tenure at Merck, Marybeth led the compound management group at Schering-Plough.  Marybeth holds a B.A. in Biology and an M.S. in Information Science."

Heather Colvan is the cofounder and Director of Operations for Simplicis. Simplicis provides expert sample management solutions focused on data and hardware integration for automated pharmaceutical laboratories.

For the past 12 years Heather has been focused on delivering problem specific solutions to Simplicis's clients with a dedication to data management.  Prior to Simplicis Heather worked in healthcare revenue cycle management implementing and integrating claims inventory management solutions.

Heather is an advocate for women in computer science and gladly volunteers her time to facilitate a Girls Who Code club at her son's school.