Singer instruments are delighted to announce we’ve won our first Tech South West Award! After attending the event virtually the team didn’t realise they had won an award until the next day. Congratulations to the team and thank you to the Tech South West team for hosting this event.

Each year Tech South West hosts an awards ceremony celebrating the success of the tech industry in the region. This year the event had to be held virtually due to Covid-19 restrictions however, still over 200 attendees gathered to celebrate what they’ve achieved this year. Singer Instruments were thrilled to be shortlisted alongside the best tech companies in the region for the second year in a row, yet had no expectations of winning an award. But we did just that!

Harry Singer our managing director explained “Six of us attended the ceremony. We watched everything. But none of us realised we’d won anything! I think we might have all been distracted by the banter in the social feed! The awards ceremony itself was so snappy and up-beat, blinking put you at risk of missing something. In fact, we didn’t even realise we’d won an award until the next day.”

“Massive thanks as ever to the Tech South West team. They’re doing a great job at connecting, celebrating and showcasing tech companies and growing the talent pool in our region. And it looks like they’ve got even more awesomeness in the pipeline for next year.” 

Singer Instruments are proud to announce we’ve won our first Tech South West Award! We are really honoured by this recognition for our innovative programmes, our fantastic company growth and our tech success in the South West.

Congratulations to the entire Singer team for making this possible!

Advanced robotics meets Synthetic Biology: Evolution of Singer-PIXL, an Automated next-generation Colony Picker “Singer-PIXL went from design to automation within 2 years of collaboration with SynCTI-BioFoundry Singapore and it has found wide acceptance in the synthetic biology community for its high precision and efficiency”

Synthetic biology is the marriage between science and engineering to design and build biological parts and cutting-edge devices to help fuel bio-based economies. This motivation to accelerate innovation in synthetic biology between academia and industry resulted in the establishment of the Singapore Consortium for Synthetic Biology (SINERGY), hosted by the National University of Singapore (NUS). SINERGY helps to bring industry sectors on board and create a globally connected bio-based economy in Singapore. SINERGY is headed by a highly reputed leader in synthetic biology Professor Matthew Chang from the Department of Biochemistry at NUS, who is also the director of the NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Translational Innovation (SynCTI) and WIL@NUS Corporate Laboratory.

A success story that emerged from SINERGY is the collaboration between Singer Instruments, which is a UK-based technology leader in automation and robotic instruments for the life science industry, and the BioFoundry Singapore (hosted by SynCTI, BioFoundry is Singapore’s first and only biofoundry) which houses state-of-the-art robotic systems. The mantra of BioFoundry is based on the concept of Design-Build-Test-Learn to evolve synthetic biological systems on a highly efficient, automated manufacturing platform to enhance high-throughput analysis. This led Singer Instruments and NUS-SynCTI to sign a research collaboration agreement in 2017 to conceive and develop a new advanced and automated high-throughput colony picker.

The amalgamation of industry and academic partners, where Singer Instruments used the motto “Listen, Collaborate and Integrate” with the Synthetic Biology’s concept of “Design-Build-Test-Learn”, led to their next-generation colony picker called Singer-PIXL. Singer’s scientists and engineers worked closely with SynCTI researchers to design and test Singer-PIXL, which evolved to become a high-precision colony picker. This agreement also meant housing Singer-PIXL at the BioFoundry Singapore for proximity to researchers, who could use the instruments and provide constant feedback to design and learning.

Screening of large libraries of microbial strains is a common workflow in synthetic biology. While screening is traditionally performed manually, handpicking thousands of colonies is not only impractical and tedious but also inefficient and costly. Despite the huge advantages of robotic colony picking systems, these platforms have not been widely adopted largely due to issues such as inconsistency, low throughput, and cross-contamination.

Singer-PIXL thus evolved by working through these shortcomings of current colony pickers available in the market. Singer-PIXL excels on 3 major aspects of design and automation.

a) User-friendly software interface: Singer-PIXL uses a touch-screen interface to guide users through the workflow to set up protocols for picking the right colonies in minutes. It is also incredibly simple to operate for end users, typically allowing them to master 90%
of software functionality within 10 mins of introduction. In short, hassle-free and easy.

Use of Pinpoint picking technology: This is a meticulously developed technology for reliability and sterility. Compared to existing models of colony pickers that use metal pins that must be sterilized every time and run the risk of cross-contamination, Singer-PIXL uses polymer-based PickupLine that is freshly cut to generate sterile ends as pinheads to transfer microbial colonies. After the colony picking is completed, the “tip” is snipped off and disposed of, hence preventing cross-contamination. Another advantage of the Pinpoint technology is that it can cope with any variation in agar height automatically to ensure that every single colony on the plate is picked and transferred without damaging agar plates. The motors are accurate to 50 microns and the picking profiles are adjustable to optimise for even the most tenacious colonies.

Singer-PIXL went from design to automation within 2 years of collaboration with SynCTI-BioFoundry Singapore. All the above-stated improvements in design and automation are based on the inputs and feedback from researchers at SynCTI. With this new design and capabilities, it has found wide acceptance in the synthetic biology community for its high precision and efficiency, thus expanding its market globally. From a researcher’s point of view, they were instrumental in the development of this new fully automated colony picker through constant learning-feedback which led to improvements in the prototype, and in return, benefited from having huge libraries of strains screened at low cost and less time. 

Conclusion

This collaboration between SynCTI-Singer PIXL has proved to be a good model and provides a blueprint for the development of future advanced robotics. We proudly believe At SynCTI that through initiatives like SINERGY, nurturing corporate-academic partnerships enhances the crosstalk between researchers and engineers, resulting in the development of cutting-edge technologies for automation and robotic screening platforms. Within SINERGY, a bevy of synergistic public-private partnerships between academia and industry is currently in the works, and we look forward to the sharing of other success stories in the very near future.

We are overjoyed to be announced as ‘Employer of the Year’ at the Somerset Business Awards. At Singer Instruments we develop world-class robots for biotechnology. Our products accelerate science in laboratories in over 50 countries, for customers like NASA, Cancer Research UK, and the top 50 universities in the World.

The Employer of the Year award is recognition of 4 years of hard work, specifically aimed at improving staff inclusivity, satisfaction, and retention:
‘Profit Share for Nerds’ is a Company bonus scheme, launched in 2016. 50% of profits above target are divided among all employees. This year, our staff are due to receive bonuses at 13% of their annual salary.


We launched ‘Equity for Nerds’ in 2018. As a recognised Government SIP scheme, this optional employee share options scheme gives employees a tax-efficient way to receive bonuses and make an investment that is currently growing at about 25%. Year one saw a 50% adoption rate, and half of Singer Instruments employees are now business owners!


Other notable initiatives include a program to increase salaries towards being nationally competitive;  a transparent pay banding structure for fairness and to augment understanding of career progression; a program to increase holiday allowance by an extra day per year for the next 5 years.


Since the implementation of these initiatives, we have noted a marked improvement in staff retention from 75% to 91%.


We now perform above Health & Safety Executive (HSE) targets in all categories: Demands; Control; Managers’ Support, Peer Support, Relationships, Role, and Change. The HSE has recently showcased Singer as a case study in recognising and dealing with the prevention of workplace stress and related issues.


Our MD Harry Singer, 3rd Generation family-owner of Singer Instruments says: “Recruiting high-quality engineers, software developers, and biologists is difficult, especially when you’re based in a tiny little village like Roadwater. Over the years we’ve had to work extra hard to make Singer Instruments attractive enough to lure engineers from the likes of Red Bull Racing and managers away from BMW and Facebook. It’s really nice to get recognised as a great place to work, thanks very much to the Chamber of Commerce and Somerset Business Awards!”


At Singer, we believe in a healthy work-life balance, with staff encouraged to limit working hours from 9 to 5. The atmosphere is relaxed, attitudes are positive, and nobody wears a suit. We firmly believe that a strong focus on transparency, clear growth pathways, an inclusive strategy, and a shared rewards structure makes for a dynamic, buzzing atmosphere with engaged, happy teams who really look forward to coming into work on a Monday morning. Most of the time!

Fancy working at Singer Instruments?

If Singer seems like the right place for you or you are a keen intern looking for some experience, then please get in touch. We are always on the lookout for top talent.

Click here to see what positions are currently available.

Celebrating 30 tetradical years of yeast tetrad dissection!

Do you have birthday wishes to share with the MSM? Leave a comment below.

Singer Instruments completing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge all for a great cause.

Text “ICED55” plus an amount (such as £5) to 70070 to donate to the Motor Neurone Disease Association

Our nominations: Haynes Lab, Boone Lab, Cai Lab & Roadwater Post Office & Stores