Category: About LabKey

Many researchers are continuously seeking ways to boost scientific collaboration. As with other disciplines, enabling scientific collaboration requires the right tools and processes. This is especially true when researchers are sharing samples that need to be tracked at each step of their lifecycle. For some labs, collaborative sample tracking involves a piecemeal approach of emails, spreadsheets, and whiteboards to give teams some visibility into the next steps, assigned work and upcoming projects. This method of sample tracking is highly prone to error and can easily get unwieldy as a lab grows or the complexity of sample processing increases. 

Finding a sample management software that tracks samples throughout their life cycle while also enabling scientific collaboration is imperative for the modern laboratory. Sample Manager has been designed by scientists, for scientists, to help get work done in the lab. We have created a tool that integrates sample registration, storage, experimental data and work assignment for doing all your sample-related work in a single application. Below are a few features that help enable scientific collaboration in the lab.

Workflow Management for Scientific Collaboration

Our task-based lab workflow management tool allows teams to capture the exact work that needs to be performed on samples. Using customizable templates, labs can easily standardize processes and create workflows that accurately reflect their SOPs. Common lab processes like sample receipt, shipping preparation, processing, and assay requests can all be managed using the Sample Manager workflow tool. For each workflow, samples are selected for inclusion in the job, tasks are assigned to individual team members, and notifications communicating the status are sent. The ability to set due dates and the priority of the work allows teams to plan and prioritize work appropriately. 

Freezer Management/Sample Location Tracking

Our sample-centric freezer management tool gives teams insight into freezer capacity and the physical storage of samples. Team members efficiently work in an intuitively designed virtual freezer environment, capturing notes for freeze/thaws and displaying those in the Sample Timeline. Users can quickly understand storage capacity, relative sample breakdown, and overall sample status across storage units in the lab.

Picklists

Teams can create private or public Picklists of samples to generate pull lists, manifests or any other type of list that would be useful for tracking and sharing samples. Sharing picklists with team members enables visibility into user-curated lists of samples and reduces the need for exporting, printing and emailing lists of samples to team members. Shared Picklists can be used to print labels, check samples in and out storage, and add samples to workflow jobs. 

Click here to learn more about Sample Manager and take a tour!

Most freezer management software aims to be a mirror image of a lab’s freezer space. Samples are assigned location in the freezer at the same time as they are entered into the system, and removed from the system when they are no longer in storage. Although this may be helpful in managing freezer capacity and sample locations, this “mirror image” approach does not always accurately reflect lab workflows or provide a full chain of custody of a given sample. 

In many labs, samples are transported, received, and processed before they are stored. Similarly, samples can also be completely removed from storage, but their data and audit logs may need to persist in the system. The freezer management software described above would be ill-suited to handle both of these scenarios. To fully track a sample and provide an end-to-end history, teams should search for a sample-centric freezer management tool- one that separates a sample’s existence from the physical location in which it’s stored.

A sample-centric freezer management software has the following benefits:

1. Samples can exist outside of a storage framework. This means that teams can:

• Save time and improve visibility of work by registering samples before they arrive
• Easily view consumed, expired or shipped samples without crawling an audit log
• Track chain-of-custody of samples that are never meant for storage

2. Samples can be part of lab tasks before or after they are physically stored. This is useful in cases like:

• Pre-registered samples are part of a “Receiving” workflow job
• Sample processing can be tracked in the system before adding the samples to storage
• Outgoing samples can be tracked in a workflow job

3. Experimental data can be associated with samples at any time. This benefits teams by:

• Adding associated data from external sources to be registered with samples, regardless of storage status
• Removing the need for “staging” freezer space to make updates to samples and their experimental data
• Creating a single space for tracking samples and their associated data, whenever it is available

About LabKey Sample Manager

LabKey Sample Manager includes a sample-centric freezer management solution into the application. This means you can create samples, add metadata and lineage information, perform work and even upload assay data — all without being required to have your sample in freezer storage. Freezer management in Sample Manager can help you:

• Manage your freezer with an end-to-end sample tracking system that stores the entire sample history and chain of custody in one place
• Organize your samples using a customizable structure that accurately reflects the physical freezers in your lab
• Track samples in and out of the freezer (freeze/thaw counts) and automatically calculate and track changes in sample volumes
• Easily find samples in the freezer and move samples between freezers
• Tracking and maintaining full audit logs of the freezer and of the samples

For many laboratories, growth and the changes that come along with it can be both exciting and challenging to sample management operations.

Without careful planning and forethought about sample management, even the most organized lab down can go down a spiral of compounding challenges. Misplaced samples, lapses in data integrity, and confusion on workflow steps are just a few of the difficulties that may arise when a laboratory is experiencing growth. A lab undergoing “growth” may be:

• Processing a higher volume of samples overall or a higher volume of a specific type of sample
• Implementing new sample processing procedures, experiments, and data collection methods
• Expanding their existing operations and the laboratory staff needed to support changes

In this webinar, we present five real-world strategies to help your lab get ahead of the challenges you may face. These include:

1. Change is difficult- be flexible!
   A growing lab will experience many forms of change. Be flexible and ready to adapt at every stage.

2. Plan for your metadata and sample tracking needs.
   Keep the sample information needed for accurate tracking at the forefront of your planning. As your lab grows, the data you need to capture may change.

3. Don’t let your freezers get out of control.
   As your sample storage needs change, be sure to prioritize freezer organization from the start.

4. Standardize your lab processes.
   By taking even small steps toward standardizing processes, labs can optimize their efficiency and ensure a smooth evolution.

5. Research sample management systems.
   Choosing the right (or wrong) sample management system can have a lasting impact on your lab.

With preparation, your lab can successfully navigate change while improving the productivity and efficiency of your sample management operations. Watch the webinar below:

LabKey Sample Manager is an easy-to-use sample management software designed to help labs efficiently track samples, define laboratory workflows, and unify samples with assay data.

Sample Tracking – End-to-end sample tracking features including chain-of-custody tracking,  sample types and sources, and lineage views

Freezer Management – Flexible and intuitive management of freezer capacity and sample storage locations.

Sample Data Integration – Integrate assay data with your samples and assign metadata for a complete picture of your ongoing experiments

Sample Management Workflow – Assign samples to user-defined workflows and monitor the workflow completion status at each stage for every sample

Explore Sample Manager – register to take a product tour!