Direct expertise. No intermediaries. Implementations that finish.
The people who genuinely need help with LIMS implementations rarely have access to the people who can actually solve their problems.
Not because the experts aren't out there. But because the contracting models in our field — layered intermediaries, mismatched incentives, and rate compression — often make it difficult for end-clients to even see the experienced professionals who could make their projects succeed.
Fruitridge Consulting Group was founded to work around that broken system. Two senior consultants. 38 combined years of LIMS work. No staffing firms extracting margin. No junior resources learning on your dime. We strategize, and we execute. The roadmap is a tool — how you use it is up to you. Our job is to make sure the tool is right and the execution is sound.
We will only work in ways that respect the work, the people it affects, and the expertise it requires. That means direct engagement, transparent pricing, and outcomes over hours.
Principal Consultant
Wayne began his career at the bench. After earning a BS in Molecular Biology with Honors from Purdue, he spent ten years as a research scientist working on apoptosis, immunology, and gene therapy — including industry research at GenVec on adenovirus vectors for cancer treatment. His work appeared in three peer-reviewed publications, including first-author research in Human Gene Therapy.
He then pivoted into laboratory informatics, where he has spent the last 21 years delivering enterprise LIMS implementations across public health surveillance, vaccine manufacturing, and pharmaceutical quality control. His career includes leadership positions at CDC, GSK Vaccines, and Emergent BioSolutions, where he led global LIMS deployments across U.S., Canadian, and European sites.
His expertise spans end-to-end global LIMS implementations across STARLIMS (14 years) and LabVantage (7 years), including module design, custom configuration, system integrations with SAP ERP via REST/SOAP APIs, and reporting database architecture. He has deep experience in validation, UAT, training, change adoption, and compliance frameworks including 21 CFR Part 11, GxP, CLIA, ISO, and CAP.
Wayne completed an MBA in Marketing & Strategy at the University of Maryland. But what defines his approach is the bench science foundation: he understands what scientists need from a LIMS because he was once the scientist trying to use one. He still rolls up his sleeves, still does the work himself, and still travels wherever the right opportunity takes him.
Selected Publications
Senior Consultant
Vanessa began her career at the bench. After earning a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech, she spent two years as a laboratory technician at Medical Neurogenetics, performing metabolic and neurochemistry assays — HPLC, LC/MS, and GC/MS — in a CAP/CLIA/FDA-regulated clinical environment. That's also where she implemented her first STARLIMS system, configuring it from scratch in a working clinical lab.
She never left either world. Over the past 15 years, Vanessa has delivered enterprise STARLIMS implementations as a consultant across public health surveillance, infectious disease response, and regulated laboratory environments. Her longest and deepest client engagement has been at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she has worked continuously since 2011 — first through Northrop Grumman, then through NovoLab Solutions, and now through Fruitridge Consulting Group. In that time she has grown from production support engineer across 40+ CDC laboratories into the lead architect for the CDC Influenza Division's STARLIMS PH v11 platform: a phased, agile rollout supporting 10+ labs that enabled a 280% increase in sample processing capacity.
Earlier in her CDC work, she standardized 50+ end-to-end laboratory workflows across 90+ infectious disease labs, navigated three prime contract transitions without losing client trust, and served as a key technical lead during the 2014 Anthrax Surge Exercise and the 2016 Zika Outbreak Response — receiving multiple CDC awards for both. She has also delivered LabVantage validation and SOP development at Emergent BioSolutions, built data migration tooling for the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health, and optimized STARLIMS performance for the Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository.
Vanessa's technical range spans STARLIMS architecture and custom development, LabVantage configuration, system integrations via REST/SOAP APIs and Mirth Connect, SQL performance optimization, and data migration strategy — all within CLIA, FDA, GxP, CAP, and 21 CFR Part 11 environments. What her background adds that most LIMS consultants can't offer: she's been the technician the system was supposed to serve. She designs workflows that are compliant because they have to be, and practical because she knows what it's like to run assays all day inside one.
Regulated environments where compliance isn't optional.
QC labs, stability testing, manufacturing support, regulatory submissions, CLIA/CAP compliance, EPA methods, outbreak response — we've worked across the spectrum.
Every engagement follows the same principles — whether we're evaluating the industry landscape or executing your specific project.
If you're looking for someone who can not only understand your LIMS challenges but actually solve them, the door is open.
Start a Conversation