LABORATORY INFORMATICS GUIDE 2015 | IMPLEMENTATION
GETTING STARTED Meghan Hudziec, Baby Genes B
aby Genes is a US-based start-up that uses next-generation sequencing to screen newborns for
myriad conditions, from cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anaemia to the rarer Fabry and Gaucher diseases. The clinical genetic test delivers information on any pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants within a newborn baby and, crucially, the clinical significance. As Dr Meghan Hudziec, one of Baby
Gene’s three-strong team, explained: ‘We provide a supplementary screen to that offered to families in the US; some states screen for fewer conditions than others. ‘Many conditions are treatable by, say,
dietary supplement, if you catch them early,’ she added. ‘But if you don’t, then this can have a lifetime impact.’ While it’s still early days for the company,
Hudziec and colleagues hope soon to be carrying out at least 1,000 tests a month, and for this, a LIMS is crucial. For them, US-based GenoLogics’ Clarity LIMS, built for the needs of clinical or research genomics and mass spectrometry laboratories, was an obvious choice. ‘Clarity LIMS is very next-generation
sequencing focused and has just the type of genetic sequencing that we’re doing,’ said Hudziec. ‘A lot of things that we would have had to customise with a different system were already incorporated and after
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a demonstration we could see it made sense visually and fitted with our types of tests.’ Crucially, for this small start-up,
Clarity LIMS was affordable. Hudziec and colleagues looked at several systems, but GenoLogics actually offered a ‘silver’ and ‘gold’ package, and the team opted for the former, cheaper option. ‘The silver gave as a great option as a
start-up lab, so we thought “Okay, this is something we can really afford and if we later transition to ‘gold’ all of the information entered into this LIMS will be transferred over”,’ explained Hudziec.
While it’s still early days for the company, Hudziec and colleagues
hope soon to be carrying out at least 1,000 tests a month
LIMS implementation was quite
straightforward. The team was on a tight deadline and wanted the system up and running within weeks, but didn’t want to lose too much manpower in the process. Consequently Hudziec and colleagues
opted for webinar training sessions, across several weeks, giving them the chance to ‘play with the system’ and ask questions later. ‘These sessions were so useful we opted out of having someone from
Implementing a new informatics systems isn’t always easy. Rebecca Pool talks to laboratory and project managers to find the best way forward
Clarity LIMS targets clinical or research genomics and mass spectrometry laboratories
GenoLogics come here,’ said Hudziec. ‘The system was logical and made sense, and the training helped us with back-end configurations, and customisation to fit our workflow.’ Baby Gene’s LIMS has just gone live, with
entire implementation taking two months. Hudziec believes the whole process could have taken place within a month, but internal company verifications slowed final system customisation. The team is now ramping up testing and is confident Clarity LIMS will grow alongside the company. ‘A few kinks in the system exist because
we opted for the silver edition, but the company is working through these now,’ she said. ‘I think when you ramp up to a larger number of samples, there are certain challenges in any system, and we know GenoLogics is growing with its customer group.’
A.Penkov/Shutterstock
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