Making the choice to implement a software-as-a-service (SaaS) LIMS in your organization can have many advantages and challenges. Knowing how best to evaluate these in the context of your particular situation will ensure you’re making an informed choice about the hosting model you select. [Read More]

In the absence of a cohesive, centralized system, the process of monitoring changes and obtaining the latest information within multi-lab environments becomes an intricate and prone-to-error undertaking. Laboratory information management systems (LIMS) can significantly improve efficiency and quality in multi-lab organizations. [Read More]

In today’s world, genomics has revolutionized various fields, from healthcare to agriculture. The evolution of genomics stands as a testament to the remarkable progress of scientific discovery. However, with great power comes great complexity. Genomic research generates vast amounts of data, which, when not properly managed, can be overwhelming. This is where LIMS steps in, offering a lifeline to researchers and scientists. [Read More]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a government agency that provides financial support for advancing scientific research. If you’re a researcher or organization looking for funding opportunities, it’s important to understand the structure of NIH and how they approach grant funding. In this blog post, we’ll explore what the NIH looks for, who is eligible to apply, the types of grant programs available, and the various grant applications. [Read More]

In today's technologically advanced world, labs rely heavily on software solutions to streamline their operations and improve efficiency. However, with the adoption of digital systems comes the need for assessing and mitigating the associated risks. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of risk assessment in lab software and understand its significance in ensuring a safe and effective working environment. We discuss the intricacies of risk assessment, its key components, and the role it plays in the validation process. [Read More]

Most of us in the laboratory community have heard the term “LIMS,” though in the healthcare arena, it’s probably “LIS.” Both terms refer to software that is at the very heart of the modern laboratory. Essentially, both are the same: the main data management software for a laboratory. But the differences revolve around the fact that a LIMS is sample-centric and an LIS is patient-centric. [Read More]

CSols Inc., the premier laboratory informatics solutions provider in North America, announces the addition of new validation services for quality management system (QMS), learning management system (LMS), and manufacturing execution system (MES) platforms. Organizations now can leverage CSols’s validation expertise across the entire Quality system. [Read More]

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies benefit from using a structured approach to data items, connections between data items, and data containers. Working with data that is internally structured reduces the time needed to create submission reports, eliminates the manual verification of large data tables, and ensures the creation of submission deliverables with no technical errors. [Read More]

In this 2023 article published in Science and Technology of Advanced Materials: Methods, Ishii et al. describe their cross-institutional efforts towards integrating X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectra and associated metadata across multiple databases to improve materials informatics processes and research methods of materials discovery and analysis. Their new public database, MDR XAFS DB, was developed towards this goal, while addressing two main issues with unifying such data: the difficulties of "designing and collecting metadata describing spectra and sample details, and unifying the vocabulary used in the metadata, including not only metadata items (keys) but also descriptions (values)." After discussing the system's construction and contents, the authors conclude their system "has achieved seamless cross searchability with the use of sample nomenclature so that database users do not have to be aware of the differences in the local metadata of the facilities that provide the data." Though still with some challenges to address, the authors add that while the culture of open data hasn't truly taken hold in materials science, they hope "that this initiative will be a trigger to promote the utilization of materials data."

MASTER YOUR eDATA LIFE CYCLE:  The Paperless Lab Academy® is thrilled to finally land in the United States after so many requests from sponsors and attendees. We celebrated the 10th edition in Europe and are now coming to the U.S. with a strong and thought-provoking program to discuss everything about mastering your data life cycle. Register now and discover the program.