The systematic recording and management of experimental data in academic life science research remains an open problem. EPFL engaged in a program of ELN and LIMS encountering a host of fundamental questions at the institutional level and in each single laboratory. The efforts were focusing in implementing a digital tool for tracking experimental data and facilitating services  to researchers through ELNs and  LIMSs. This institutional initiative has created a commodity for more than 50 laboratories mainly in the field of life Sciences.

During his presentation, Nicolas Argento will describe the resources , methodology, and the challenges encountered during the Process. Nicola will take su through the results obtained at each phase of the project and will share the key success factors that led the new tools to be adopted by more than 500 users.

Nicola explains that the success of the project was due to choosing a highly customisable platform. While it has  allowed the labs to own and configure their particular information system, protecting the creativity and freedom of the research process, it was anyhow critical to reinforce the necessity of a data manager  responsible for adopting good data-management tools and practices. 

It makes tracking bench experiments, identifying samples, storage, tracking, and managing Standard Operating Procedures fairer and easier. The new practices show a positive impact in terms of research quality and efficiency by increasing data availability, reusability, and reproducibility of experiments in the life sciences.

Beyond researchers, the digital transformation also impacted the central services of the School’s institutes. As illustrated by this project, overcoming challenges raised by modern life sciences research require collaboration between IT and labs. “Enabling good research data management is possible, within the appropriate environment,” says Gaël Anex, Head of the IT Unit at the School of Life Sciences. “The main challenges aren’t technological anymore, they are managerial.”

Presenter: Nicolas Argento, ELN/LIMS services manager at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

For the last 6 years, Nicolas has been transforming an ELN/LIMS project into a core service serving the research laboratories and technology platforms in an academic life sciences research institute. Focused on the added value for scientists and laboratory staff, he coordinated 55 LIMS implementations in a wide variety of laboratories. His team of 4 engineers ensure tailor made deployments, the maintenance and evolution of an in-house infrastructure. IT engineer by training, his previous experience was in IT project management in the banking industries. He decided to embrace an innovative training to specialised in IT for healthcare. Acting as a lead link between laboratories and IT departments, his expertise covers biology R&D, healthcare and telemedicine information systems as well as IT project and services management.

EPFL, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, is the most cosmopolitan of all European technical universities. It welcomes students, professors and researchers of more than 120 nationalities. With both a Swiss and international vocation, EPFL focuses on three missions: education, research and innovation. EPFL collaborates with an important network of partners, including other universities and colleges, secondary schools and gymnasiums, industry and the economy, politicians and the general public, in order to have a real impact on society. The School of Life Sciences fosters education, research and innovation at the interface of engineering and biology to advance the understanding of the living world and solve biomedical problems. Our 52 research laboratories are grouped into four institutes, with strong inter-institute connections providing an interdisciplinary environment stimulating innovative research. www.epfl.ch

The post EPFL Institutional ELN and LIMS deployment project in Academic research appeared first on .

Worn-out, yellowed notebooks, overstuffed with taped-in readouts and protocols, can be found in life science labs all around the world. Traditionally, scientists have had to first record their data on paper, then duplicate that data into a spreadsheet for further analysis, re-enter the data into an electronic file or email to share it, and sometimes even re-enter it into their lab’s lab management software.

All of this manual data entry is time-consuming and takes scientists and managers away from the science itself. What’s more, each step of manual data entry introduces another opportunity for manual error. And after all of that effort, paper notebooks run the risk of being damaged, lost, or even simply accidentally left behind during a critical procedure.

The Solution: ELN

ELNs are the natural solution to these problems. They provide a reliable, digital record of what happened in any given experiment and can incorporate graphs, tables, images, figures, etc.  Data is captured, manipulated, and analyzed in one central location, reducing the chance for human error, the time required for analysis, and the busywork that takes scientists away from actually doing science.

However, a software solution should do more than just address the inefficiencies of manual record keeping. Software should be better than merely an electronic replacement of paper and should be flexible in the face of iteration, rather than breaking when innovations arise. Scientists deserve modern software that fosters insights, supports collaboration, and drives predictive and adaptive planning.

The Benchling Difference

Benchling rises to this challenge. Benchling is a fully unified platform to centralize and standardize all R&D data and is built for the complexity of modern research modalities and R&D processes. Its flexibility enables you to rapidly iterate on R&D workflows through a platform that’s easy to configure, integrate, and extend. Benchling was built in the cloud from day one to serve as a single source of truth for your R&D organization, through a seamless suite of applications (Notebook, Molecular Biology Suite, Registry, Inventory, Requests, and Workflows).

This means that scientists no longer have to move data between disparate systems, and records are always contextualized as part of an end-to-end experimental history. For example, scientists can embed the plasmids they used in their experiments directly within their Notebook entries. Other scientists can then access the entry, click through directly into the plasmid, and even see which freezers contain cells that express that plasmid. And what’s more – Benchling is built to be as intuitive as consumer software. Taken together, the power and usability of Benchling mean that scientists use it as an active tool in their research, not a static archive of data. Drive faster, smarter decision making for your research organization.

Silver Sponsor Exhibiting at PLA2020 Europe
Learn more at www.benchling.com 

Lauren Shields, Ph.D. – Head of Customer Success

Benchling is the first R&D cloud platform powering the life science industry and helping the next generation of scientists make breakthrough discoveries faster than ever before. Replacing outdated pen and paper processes, Benchling offers unified R&D solutions purpose-built for biotech, including Notebook, Molecular Biology, Registry, Inventory, and Request & Workflow Management. Benchling is used globally across the largest multinational pharmaceutical corporations, emerging biotechnology companies, and major research institutions. 

The post Looking to level up your Lab Informatics Software? Don’t settle for just an ELN appeared first on .

Bio-ITech facilitates laboratories to improve efficiency and quality of research by providing comprehensive and flexible lab information management software. Our products LABJournal electronic lab notebook (ELN) and eLABInventory sample management system are developed and supported by life science experts and can be used by any lab from academia to industry.

The broad range of features and flexible add-ons qualify eLABJournal and eLABInventory as the perfect solutions for your whole research institute.

eLABJournal offers an intuitive and flexible solution to manage information in your lab. The all-in-one Electronic Lab Notebook also includes modules for sample tracking and protocol management. eLABJournal improves efficiency when documenting, organizing, searching and archiving data, samples, and protocols. The software is suitable for any lab ranging from small academic laboratories and start-up companies to large academic institutes and globally operating companies.

eLABInventory is a highly customizable sample management software that organizes any type of sample in the lab. It can be fully configured to work in your unique environment and offers standardized documentation, efficient and organized inventory storage and a full audit trail for every item.

Benefits of using eLABJournal and eLABInventory in your research lab:

• One solution to all your lab needs –  eLABJournal is a fully integrated solution for data, sample and protocol management in your lab.
• Keep your data secure – All data is automatically and safely stored in the eLABJournal cloud or your own servers depending on the hosting solution. Bio-ITech, the producer of eLABJournal, is ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified, the globally accepted standard for information security management.
• Access your data from anywhere – eLABJournal is a web-based ELN that allows you to access your data on any device, anytime, anywhere. Mobile access is available through the eLAB mobile App (Android & iOS).
• Receive support from fellow scientists– Designed by scientists for scientists. Our account managers all have a background in life science research. We understand the language of the lab and are happy to offer solutions to the problems you are facing.
• Be fully compliant – With eLABJournal your lab is able to comply to regulatory guidelines of ISO and work in accordance with Good Laboratory Practice (GLP). Experiments can be signed and counter-signed with electronic signatures to be locked for further modification in accordance with the FDA 21 CFR part 11 guidelines.
• Visualize your sample database – Visualize the entire lab and set up storage locations according to your lab specifications. Easily browse through storage locations to locate samples in the lab.

While many ELN solutions are available as standard packages, Bio-ITech takes pride in getting to know customers personally so we can identify and service your unique needs.

If you are interested in a personal consultation with one of our life science consultants, please contact us.

Or you can follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and stay up to date with our latest developments.

The post Streamline Your Life Science Research with eLABJournal and eLABInventory (from Bio-ITech) appeared first on .

Once again, our Premium Media Partners, Scientific Computing World and Editrice Industrial and their 2 dedicated portals Labworld.it and Industrychemistry.com are facilitating an exhaustive presentation of the Paperless Lab Academy 2018 Sponsors in English and in Italian respectively. Our sponsors are making possible to maintain the free access to attendees.  Solutions and services providers of the Lab informatics market are given the opportunity to introduce themselves and present their latest offering.

The event has become one of the best showcase where to meet and discuss the future coming technologies to the lab, clarifying basic concepts like web-based and SAAS, metadata and master data, electronic signature and CFR21/11, data archival and data backups but also discover what´s boiling these days, as  the digital twin, the General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) May´s deadline, blockchain, Internet of Lab things….

Click the icons to read the corresponding article

Above all, the event has the ability to attract well known international leaders in the market and an impressive long list of new comers. They might come from US or India yet new to the European market, they might come from Europe, young company with fresh ideas and innovative alternatives. They might also be very dedicated to a concrete area of the R&D laboratory for new molecule design. They might propose a solid solution for microbiology quality control or a dedicated tool for managing unstructured data or in the contrary propose a full portfolio of assets covering the complete data life cycle.

See all sponsors interactive workshop proposal for the PLA2018 – here

The post The Who´s Who Lab Informatics solutions providers appeared first on .

BioData will be present at Paperless Lab Academy with Labguru, their ELN software that provides management of structured and unstructured laboratory data, processes, entities and documentation in a single web based IT platform.

What can your company benefit from it? Simple – LabGuru helps you run your lab more efficiently and maximize your research output, as well as plan and document experiments, track progress, streamline lab logistics, and share results.

It integrates all aspects of a research lab, improving research processes, saving time and reducing costs.

The capabilities of the software also include:

• ELN and Project Management, including chemistry support, MS office integration and e-signatures
• LIMS Competencies
  Inventory and entity management with bio-molecules domain expertise
  Workflow and protocol management
  Barcode and label printing
• SDMS (‘UpFolder’)
• REST API to integrate with existing IT environment
• Multi or single tenant setting via AWS or on-premise

LabGuru’s strategy is it to become the outstanding provider of web based lab information tools to life sciences and adjacent verticals. At the moment, it counts of 10K+ users in its multi- tenant deployment.

AstraZeneca is one of the company ́s most satisfied large industrial customers; thanks to LabGuru, the Discovery Sciences Unit of AstraZeneca have unified information about mission-critical biological reagents and made that information available anywhere anytime.

Founded by Jonathan Gross in 2007 and then acquired by Digital Science, BioData is currently headquartered in Israel and has offices in the US (Cambridge, MA) and the UK (London). It counts of 20 employees, the majority of them employed in product development and engineering.

Biodata’s numerous customers range from academic institutions to small and medium-sized biotech companies to large life science companies

LabGuru will be present at the Paperless Lab Academy with a booth in the exhibition area – visit them and get to know more about their software and all benefits linked to it.

The post BioData sponsoring at #PLA2018 with Labguru – their Electronic Lab Notebook appeared first on .

The post Agilab LIMS Solutions moves to Oracle Cloud appeared first on .

As you probably know, Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN) are computer programs designed to replace paper laboratory notebooks. Among their benefits for the user and the organisations according to Wikipedia we can mention ELNs are “easier to search upon, simplify data copying and backups, and support collaboration amongst many users. ELNs can have fine-grained access controls, and can be more secure than their paper counterparts. They also allow the direct incorporation of data from instruments, replacing the practice of printing out data to be stapled into a paper notebook”.

Choosing a good electronic laboratory notebook software solution can become a difficult task, as an ELN should be able to combine the ability to “offer a secure environment to protect the integrity of both data and process”, as Wikipedia explains, with the “flexibility to adopt new processes or changes to existing processes without recourse to further software development”. The chosen ELN should also include a modular design to minimize validation costs of future changes, and should contain “fully configurable forms to comply with the requirements of regulated analytical groups”.

The organisers of the Paperless Lab Academy (Isabel Muñoz-Willery, Roberto Castelnovo, and Peter Boogaard) are very interested in ELN, so we decided to team up with Scientific Computing World to make a survey to gauge opinion on the use of (ELN) software and also to know how features, implementation, and pricing can affect the decision to deploy ELN systems within an organisation. Even if you are not currently using ELN software in the laboratory we would like your help to better understand why organisations deploy ELN software.

Any participants that would like to provide contact details will also be in with the chance to win two nights stay at the Gran Hotel Rey Don Jaime, Castelldefels, Barcelona to attend the Paperless Lab Academy 2017 on April 4th & 5th.

Go to survey now.

——

Learn more about ELN:

–DAMAS – Data Acquisition, Management, and Analysis System – an integrated Electronic Lab Notebook @ work (Presentation by Roche)

–Collaboration to Insight: Closing the gap between data capture and real-time decisions (Workshop by Perkin Elmer)

The post Share your views on Electronic Lab Notebooks and win 2 nights stay in Barcelona appeared first on .