Emerald Cloud Lab
{{Short description|Biotech company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Emerald Cloud Lab
| logo =
| type = Private
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| fate =
| predecessor = Emerald Therapeutics
| successor =
| founded = {{Start date and age|2010}}
| founder = {{Unbulleted list|D.J. Kleinbaum|Brian Frezza}}
| defunct =
| hq_location_city = South San Francisco, California
| hq_location_country = United States
| area_served =
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| num_employees =
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| website = {{URL|https://emeraldcloudlab.com}}
}}
Emerald Cloud Lab (ECL) is a privately-owned biotech startup. The company focuses on advancing laboratory virtualization, for chemistry and biotechnology, by building the first fully functional cloud lab, allowing scientists to conduct all of their wet lab research without being in a physical laboratory.{{Cite web|last=Mouratidis|first=Yiannis|title=A Cloud Lab Dedicated To Cancer Drug Discovery|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/yiannismouratidis/2019/02/27/a-cloud-lab-dedicated-to-cancer-drug-discovery/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Forbes|language=en}}
Products and services
ECL is a physical laboratory that can be accessed remotely by scientists via the internet. Scientists ship samples to an ECL facility and design their experiments in the ECL Command Center software application. ECL Command Center is a fully integrated application, where experiments are encoded in a language and grammar designed by ECL to allow remote operation and ensure reproducibility. ECL remotely conducts your experiments in a highly automated ECL facility exactly to the scientist’s specifications. The platform collects and organizes all data generated by and relevant to experiments into a powerful knowledge graph. ECL Command Center’s extensive suite of tools can then be used to plot, analyze, and visualize results.{{Cite web|title=How the ECL Works|url=https://www.emeraldcloudlab.com/how-it-works/|access-date=2020-07-29|website=www.emeraldcloudlab.com|language=en-us}}
History
=Founding=
D.J. Kleinbaum and Brian Frezza grew up together on Emerald Drive outside of Philadelphia. In 2010, after completing their PhDs, they came together to found Emerald Therapeutics in an effort to develop "antiviral therapeutics for diseases such as HPV and HIV". During this time, they experienced frustrations with laboratory hardware and software. Hardware often comes from disparate manufacturers, software is often rudimentary, and output can vary in formatting. To simplify laboratory testing, the group wrote centralized management software for the different machines and a database to store all metadata and results.{{cite web |last1=Vance |first1=Ashlee |author-link=Ashlee Vance |title=Emerald Therapeutics: Biotech Lab for Hire |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-07-03/emerald-therapeutics-biotech-lab-for-hire |website=Bloomberg |accessdate=30 October 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705210722/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-07-03/emerald-therapeutics-biotech-lab-for-hire |archivedate=5 July 2017 |date=3 July 2014 |url-status=live}} This "laboratory operating system" continued to expand in capabilities, including the ability to directly control instrumentation and manage inventory and procurement. Recognizing the value this type of system presented outside of their own development goals, Kleinbaum and Frezza launched this service in 2014 under the name Emerald Cloud Lab.{{cite news |last1=Temple |first1=James |title=Founders Fund Backs a Robotic Lab that Puts Science in the Cloud |url=https://www.vox.com/2014/6/30/11628450/founders-fund-backs-a-robotic-lab-that-puts-science-in-the-cloud |accessdate=2 May 2020 |work=Vox |date=30 June 2014 |language=en}} In 2016, Emerald Cloud Lab and Emerald Therapeutics were spun off from one another, and both are independent corporations.Emerald Cloud Lab, Inc., California Corporation Entity Number C3251573. See {{cite web|date=November 10, 2016|title=Amended Statement by Foreign Corporation|url=https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/Document/RetrievePDF?Id=03963251-21527657|access-date=July 30, 2020|website=California Secretary of State|format=PDF}}{{Cite web|title=Emerald Cloud Lab - Biocom|url=https://www.biocom.org/member/emerald-cloud-lab/|access-date=2020-07-29}}
=Business development=
As of 2014, Emerald Cloud Lab offered access to 40 types of laboratory instruments. By 2017, the range of instruments had expanded to 106.
Groth, Paul; Cox, Jessica (2017), “Datasets for Potential of Robotic Lab Methods Usage in Biomedical Papers”, Mendeley Data, v3 http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/gy7bfzcgyd.3#file-2066813b-adc9-425e-a347-51122bdbe944 As of July 2020, Emerald Cloud Lab offered full control of over 150 laboratory instruments, with plans to expand capabilities outlined through 2021.
Researchers and pharmaceutical groups have long been concerned about the lack of reproducibility of laboratory testing in the biomedical field. A 2017 literature analysis article posited that highly automated, internet connected labs like ECL could ameliorate the problem. The paper concludes that, "we believe that robotic labs can provide the basis for performing a large percentage of basic biomedical research in a reproducible and transparent fashion".{{cite journal |pmid=29134146|pmc=5681851|year=2017|last1=Groth|first1=P.|title=Indicators for the use of robotic labs in basic biomedical research: A literature analysis|journal=PeerJ|volume=5|pages=e3997|last2=Cox|first2=J.|doi=10.7717/peerj.3997 |doi-access=free }} Frezza has described this laboratory inconsistency as one specific reason for the development of Emerald Cloud Lab and the use of automation.{{cite web|last1=Garner|first1=Rochelle|title=Science labs in the cloud: Champagne discoveries, beer budget|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/science-labs-in-the-cloud-champagne-discoveries-beer-budget/|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028132021/https://www.cnet.com/news/science-labs-in-the-cloud-champagne-discoveries-beer-budget/|archivedate=28 October 2015|accessdate=29 October 2019|website=Cnet|ref=BeerBudget}}
Financing
After spinning out of Emerald Therapeutics, the company has gone on to raise capital in multiple rounds. Key investors include Founders Fund,{{Cite web|title=Emerald Cloud Lab|url=https://foundersfund.com/company/emerald-therapeutics/|access-date=2020-07-31|website=Founders Fund|language=en-US}} Schooner Capital,{{Cite web|title=Portfolio|url=https://www.schoonercapital.com/portfolio|access-date=2020-07-31|website=SCHOONER CAPITAL|language=en-US}} OS Fund,{{Cite web|title=Portfolio Companies|url=https://osfund.co/portfolio-companies/|access-date=2020-07-31|website=OS Fund|language=en}} Alcazar Capital,{{Cite web|title=AVG Focused Fund Portfolio of Investments|url=https://www.avgfunds.com/focusedfunds/focused-funds-portfolio/|access-date=2020-07-31|website=Alumni Ventures Group}} Western Technology Investment,{{Cite web|title=Portfolio|url=https://westerntech.com/portfolio/|access-date=2020-07-31|website=WTI}} Sound Ventures,{{Cite web|last=PhD|first=@Marina T. Alamanou|date=2019-10-07|title=Artificial Intelligence in Preclinical Design and Execution: Investors and Startups|url=https://medium.com/@avocado_2015/artificial-intelligence-in-preclinical-design-and-execution-investors-and-startups-2bee3400ee6b|access-date=2020-07-31|website=Medium|language=en}} SciFi VC,{{Cite web|title=SciFi VC|url=https://scifi.vc/|access-date=2020-07-31|website=scifi.vc|language=en}} Incite Ventures,{{Cite web|last=Incite|title=Ventures|url=http://www.incite.org/ventures/|access-date=2020-07-31|website=Incite}} and Spike Ventures.
The business got its second round of funding by 2014 from the Founders Fund (FF), a venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel, bringing total funding raised from FF up to $13.5 million. The first FF funding round was not public.