Timothy Sangster (Charles River Laboratories) and Mike Oliver (Thermo Fisher Scientific) speak to Thomas Payne at Bioanalysis in September 2012 about the challenges faced by the modern bioanalytical laboratory. Timothy Sangster has been with Charles River Laboratories since September 2009. Having worked for Quintiles, Pharmacia, Astrazeneca and Huntingdon Life Sciences, he has gained experience over 17 years in both CRO and pharmaceutical environments, and also in both Europe and the USA. Specific areas of interest over the past years have been microchromatography, sample preparation and matrix effects, to name a few. Mike Oliver has held the position of Global Product Manager for sample preparation at Thermo Fisher Scientific since 2010, being responsible for the development and introduction of new innovative technologies such as SOLA™ to the market place. Prior to this role, Mike has worked for two leading MS vendors over a 9‑year period, being responsible for biotechnology sales within the UK and providing application solutions for proteomic and metabolic workflows based on high-resolution LC-MS platforms, respectively. Mike holds a PhD in MS and Biochemistry from the MS Research Unit, University of Wales, Swansea, UK.