Syngenta and ZONTAL: From Data Fragmentation to Integration

As part of SciY, a Bruker division, ZONTAL contributes to its expertise in digital continuity and data-centric architectures to enable the next generation of analytical laboratories. At the recent FutureLab: Chemistry in the Digital Age event, hosted by CAMS and SciY, Shaun Latham, Presales Data Scientist at ZONTAL, and Laura Pineiro Fernandez, Platform Specialist at Syngenta shared how collaborative innovation is turning digital transformation from a theoretical goal into practical, everyday reality.

Together, they explored how laboratories can move from fragmented data environments toward integrated, single-interface workflows that improve efficiency, data integrity, and scientific collaboration.

Understanding the Interoperability Challenge

Many laboratories rely on multiple systems to plan, execute, and document experiments—often across disconnected platforms such as ELNs, LIMS, and instrument control software. Each system stores data differently, forcing scientists to manually transfer or reformat information to complete even routine tasks.

This lack of interoperability creates inefficiencies and introduces the potential for transcription errors and compliance risks. Data becomes difficult to trace, validate, or reuse, and valuable knowledge remains isolated in proprietary formats or local storage.

Industry Progress Toward Standardization

The challenges of interoperability are not unique to a single organization. Across the life sciences, collaborative efforts such as the Allotrope Foundation have developed shared data models and ontologies that standardize analytical results and make them portable between systems. These frameworks enable consistent interpretation of data regardless of instrument vendor or software provider.

ZONTAL extends this standardization beyond analytical data to include experimental methods, ELN entries, and records—creating a consistent and future-proof foundation that allows organizations to evolve their digital ecosystems without losing access to their data.

From Fragmentation to Integration with ZONTAL Operations

ZONTAL Operations provides a unified process model that connects experiment planning, data acquisition, and reporting within one environment. Built on ISA-95 and ISA-88 standards, it structures scientific processes so that digital assets—such as samples, procedures, instruments, and results—remain connected and interoperable throughout their lifecycle.

Through this approach, researchers can initiate analytical requests directly from their ELN while ZONTAL Operations manages communication with instruments, captures results, and returns standardized data automatically. All information is stored in a FAIR-compliant environment—findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable—eliminating the need for manual transcription or separate data repositories.

This unified workflow improves data integrity, reduces administrative effort, and ensures every dataset is ready for downstream analysis, visualization, or AI/ML applications.

Syngenta’s Perspective

Laura Pineiro Fernandez, Platform Specialist, Syngenta, shared how her team partnered with ZONTAL to address long-standing challenges in managing research chemistry data. Historically, analytical information was stored on individual machines and exchanged by email, which made it difficult to locate, compare, or reuse results.

By implementing ZONTAL Operations, Syngenta established a centralized and standardized data environment. Today, most analytical requests can be initiated directly from the ELN with minimal effort. Behind the scenes, data acquisition, archiving, and reporting are fully automated, allowing scientists to focus on research rather than file management.

This integrated foundation has also enabled new capabilities such as a metabolite identification tool that queries standardized datasets to rapidly match peaks and identify compounds—significantly accelerating data interpretation and decision-making.

Closing

By connecting people, data, and systems through a data-centric architecture, ZONTAL and its partners are helping laboratories move beyond fragmented tools toward reliable, automated workflows that support better science and faster innovation.