Second half recap of the year 2022

  • Published: 19 December 2022
This year seemed to just fly by because there was just so much happening all the time. It doesn’t feel that long ago when we did the recap for the year's first half. You can read it here. Now it’s time to focus on the second half of the year and all the wonder and joy we got to experience. As it is wintertime, feel free to grab a warm beverage and some gingerbread while you read or settle in your beach chair with a cold cocktail, if you are from the southern hemisphere.

July 

Let us start where we left off with the previous recap - right in the middle of the summer, in the month of July. This was the month we published our first application note with MicroGEM to solve problems related to the DNA analysis of plant samples. This set the bar for more affordable DNA analyses in all those conditions for which the availability of input material represents a limiting factor. You can find out more here.

There were some traveling moments involved as well. You could meet us at AACC 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting + Clinical Lab Expo in Chicago, USA. 

From the stories side, you could read about our wonderful portfolio manager Reet, who can tell you some fascinating stories about our products.

August

The last month of summer was quite a busy month. We started by talking about the restrictions regarding alkylphenol ethoxylate (APE) surfactants such as nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) and octylphenol ethoxylates (OPEs), which include Triton X-100. 

Then we found out that we were nominated for the second consecutive time by EAS - Enterprise Estonia as one of the top 10 Estonian companies in the categories "Best Exporter" and "Best Innovator". 

There was quite a lot of socializing involved as well. Our CEO, Stephan Goldenbaum, took the stage at sTARTUp day to discuss similarities and differences in the biotech and digital health world. We also had some visitors stopping by like the delegation from the Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies.

Our blog got a nice addition to its science stories where we talked about modern-day chimeras and how to get the ultimate enzyme with the biggest efficiency.

September

As September is the month of learning, we dedicated our time to give some helpful advice about PCR. In case you feel like you could use a refresher about probe-based qPCR, have another look at our tips. 

We also had time to continue our cooperation with MicroGEM and bring you great results from prenatal diagnostics. Combining a product from our SolisFAST® range with MicroGEM's technology resulted in an optimized protocol, which significantly reduces hands-on-time per reaction, plastic consumption, and costs, for extraction of dsDNA from amniotic fluid and maternal blood. You can read all about it in the application note.

In addition, we advanced in the Enterprise Estonia Entrepreneurship Award competition and were nominated in the top 3 “Best Innovator” and top 3 “Best Exporter” categories.

In our blog, you could read about our technology specialist Kadri and how her numerous amount of hobbies and interests have helped her excel. You could find out about Dr. Adebayo Victor Akeju and his work in Nigeria, which helps to level-up Malaria control and prevention.

October

October was an unbelievably busy and rewarding month for us. We started by supporting young scientists at the 24. annual Conference of Estonian Society of Human Genetics. During the conference, we had the honor of being the main sponsors for the Young Scientists session.

We visited Medlab Asia in Bangkok and ArabLab in Dubai. We were present at the Smart City Tartu entrepreneurship award event and the Go Global Awards event. In the case of the latter, we were chosen from 6000 entries from 82 countries to be in the final.

Speaking of award events - we finally did it! We won the Innovator of the year award! This innovator of the year award is excellent recognition for all Estonian science, but especially for our company's strong team, that we can take science to the wide world from here, in Estonia, at the Tartu Science Park. 

To celebrate our amazing victory with all our partners, we started the SolisFAST® campaign to give everyone a 20% discount on all of our SolisFAST® products. What’s a better way to jubilate being innovative than sharing our science around the world, so that our partners could also make cutting-edge discoveries?

To give even better ideas on how to make the most of our products, we had two webinars. The first was about the advantages and disadvantages regarding different enzyme formats and tips about (RT)-qPCR optimization. The second was about preventing carryover contamination and methods that will save you money and time. Both webinars can be rewatched as many times as you would like.

November

Despite October being full of excitement, we did not slow down for November. We had a sizable delegation at Medica to discuss the latest trends in the market, share some new and cool pre-launch info and the importance of stability and inhibitor tolerance of our reagents.

We also found the time to mentor young entrepreneurs and give ideas on how they can make their bioscience startup idea a reality at i-Days.

In our blog, you could read about our one-of-a-kind product development project manager Tarmo and how he always manages to motivate everyone to do their best. We also published our SolisFAST® inhibitor tolerance white paper. It includes results from different tests, shows real-life application possibilities, and feedback from our partners about the SolisFAST® qPCR products.

December

The end of the year might be already approaching in December, but a lot can happen in 31 days. We have so far managed to launch a new product called Salini UNG™ Uracil-N-Glycosylase. Be sure to check it out and the accompanying blog post that explains everything you need to know about UNG and contamination prevention. You might even get some great tips on how to improve your everyday lab work efficiency.

Our chief of operations Angela Vaasa gave a speech at the Estonian 2% club meeting (community companies who invest at least 2% of their company's turnover in research and development activities) to introduce our company, innovation, and mindset. In addition, many insightful presentations, discussions, and new ideas got shared at the event. It was concluded, that Estonia is on the right track, to becoming the Country of Innovation.

Our most recent blog post is about using neuropeptides to help feed the world and solve problems related to obesity. Considering that in November of this year, the world population reached an astounding 8 billion people and obesity is crippling our healthcare systems and causing premature death, it’s a very relevant and intriguing topic.

As Christmas is approaching, we also found time to do something that is just fun and we would love for you to join our jolly winter celebration full of gingerbread decorating and playing games. You can check out our Christmas page on our website, if you haven’t been there already. 

Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!