laboratory informatics
sharing analytical and biological data. Te product portfolio is founded on the firm’s flagship Seahorse Scientific Workbench, a vendor-neutral soſtware suite that can capture and manage raw analytical and results data from a wide range of experimental techniques and instrumentation. Seahorse Workbench allows disparate data types to be interpreted and viewed side-by-side, irrespective of the original soſtware, with support from visualisation, annotation and reporting features.
Pioneering the AnIML data standard BSSN is now testing a beta version of a Seahorse Web Edition, which will ultimately provide similar functionality to the desktop edition, including data analysis and reporting. For the bioprocess sectors, BSSN offers its Bioprocess Manager suite, which supports the complete bioprocess development and execution workflow. Contract Research Manager, also based on the Seahorse Workbench, has been developed to facilitate the streamlining of communication, ordering analytical results and workflow data- sharing and interaction, between client and CRO. Key to all BSSN’s platforms are the vendor- neutral mechanisms of data capture, built on the XML-based AnIML data standard, which has been developed for the storing and sharing of
multiple experimental data formats, for a wide range of scientific disciplines. BSSN is pioneering AnIML, and offers a number of converters that can transpose data from other formats directly into AnIML. ‘What’s particularly interesting to us, is that
whereas two years ago we were working almost exclusively with end users, today, half of our business is with the instrument and soſtware vendors, who are putting our technology into their own products to facilitate integration,’ Schaefer comments. ‘We can provide insight into the everyday workflows that people are doing. What matters in the end is a quicker time to market, which can be achieved by leveraging our framework.’
Collaboration with SiLA As part of its role in pioneering the AnIML data standard, BSSN Soſtware has been involved in what Schaefer maintains could be a ground-breaking collaboration with the non-profit SiLA consortium for Standardisation in Lab Automation. SiLA is spearheading the development and introduction of interface and data management standards that will facilitate rapid integration of lab automation systems, Schaefer explained. ‘SiLA is focusing on developing a standard for the communication side, where AnIML is the data side. Te potential
Tablets and smartphones are finding their way into the laboratory. BSSN’s middleware technology delivers analytical data to users wherever they are
for synergy is evident, and SiLA and AnIML have been working together for the last year. At the recent MipTec exhibition in Basel, we worked with SiLA to demonstrate the power of standardised communication. For the demonstration, at the SiLA stand, users would simply put a piece of candy on a Mettler Toledo analytical balance. Tey could then go into Seahorse Scientific Workbench and initiate a workflow that required that candy to be weighed. Te request was made simply using the SILA standard communication protocol – which is also XML-based – and the instrument made the measurement and sent the data back as a standard AnIML file. It was a real eye opener as to how, if standards bodies work together, so much more can be achieved. Tat’s a prospect that is really exciting.’
Doing more with your data In parallel with its drive to promote the standardisation of informatics communication, and having developed the tools for collating disparate data together and effectively publishing it in standard and usable formats, BSSN is also turning its attention to the development of new solutions that will add value to existing informatics layers by allowing scientists to do even more with their data. ‘Data aggregation was the first step, and now we need to see what kind of data processing and workflow management we can put on top of that, so that we can cover an entire workflow within an organisation, all based on open standards,’ Schaefer explained. ‘Tis will involve the development of domain-specific tools that will allow scientists to carry out data post- processing, independently from that instruments soſtware. ‘Te aim is to enable users to pull data
together from different instruments and not just aggregate it, but act on it – for example, to request additional analytical tests on relevant instrumentation, using a single tool, and without having to revert to that instrument’s own soſtware. When you can do all that, then you have really got something sustainable that can cover an entire workflow within an organisation with full reproducibility.’l
www.scientific-computing.com l @scwmagazine DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 13
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