CHICAGO – May 30, 2012 – The Journal of Laboratory Automation (JALA) is now accepting nominations for The 2013 JALA Ten. An official journal of the Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), JALA annually names The JALA Ten to honor the top 10 technological breakthroughs that made seminal impact toward addressing key biological and medical quandaries.

The JALA Ten embraces a spectrum of fields that include but are not limited to laboratory automation, robotics, drug discovery, drug screening, novel therapeutic strategies and delivery technologies, diagnostics, nanotechnology, nanomedicine, microtechnology as it relates to biology and medicine, novel characterization techniques and more.

Nominations are open to SLAS members and nonmembers, and self-nominations are welcome. A JALA Ten Selection Committee, comprising members of the JALA Editorial Board and other professionals from the broader science and engineering community with representation from the academic, corporate, and government sectors, will evaluate all nominations received. The committee will specifically search for work that has generated profound impact on the general fields of biology and medicine. Fundamental and applied breakthroughs are eligible, and all fields of innovation with specific relevance toward biology and medicine will be considered.

Nominations should be e-mailed before September 22, 2012, to nhallock@slas.org. Nominations must include:

1. SHORT DESCRIPTION: A concise and original 100-word description of the work and a representative image (photo or illustration with appropriate reprinting permissions). If selected, both will be included in a feature story about The JALA Ten that will be published in JALA.

2. MORE INFORMATION: A 500-word detailed report that explains to the selection committee why the nominated work merits selection to the The JALA Ten.

3. CITATION: Nominations must have been officially published (online publication is acceptable) in a peer-reviewed publication to ensure that its technical merit has been previously evaluated, and the full citation in ACS style must be provided.

To read about past JALA Ten honorees, visit JALA Online at http://jla.sagepub.com/ and search keyword “JALA Ten.”

In its seventeenth year of peer-reviewed publication, the Journal of Laboratory Automation (JALA) publishes six issues each year and will receive its first impact factor in June 2012. JALA is published by SLAS in partnership with SAGE Publications. For more information, please visit www.SLAS.org.