LABORATORY INFORMATICS
g
noted that ‘scientists in different labs are working across time zones and across countries. They really need a single repository for this information, so that, regardless of what shift you are on, or what time zone you are in, you have access to the most current data’.
Tools facilitate remote working LIMS or ELN systems can help to minimise the amount of time scientists have to spend in the lab, as mobile alerts or other features can help notify scientists when their experiments will be finishing. Streamlining data sharing and access also helps facilitate agile decision making and lets scientists access data and analyse or work on data from home. While some of these tools have been
around in certain forms for a number of years, Covid-19 is forcing organisations to look carefully at how they manage access to the laboratory, while maintaining as high a level of productivity as possible. ‘The platform for science helps to manage the end-to-end process through the labs – it enables scientists to know what they did and what someone else has done. It also gives you the ability to integrate with tools like RStudio,’ said Rose. ‘Labs are embracing the cloud and embracing remote working, where in the past there was some nervousness around
24 Scientific Computing World Autumn 2020
the cloud. People are starting to open up and realise that they do not need to be in the lab. You can be outside and still get the same amount of work done. ‘This shift that is happening now,
because of Covid-19, is going to continue, because you are getting the same amount of work done, if not more, because you are not spending an hour a day in traffic,’ Rose added. ‘Automation tools are helping to drive this as well, because you do not need as many people in the lab with things becoming automated.’ Several LIMS and ELN vendors are
now equipping their software with pre- configured workloads to help scientists get set up with key laboratory operations. This reduces the amount of setup and administrative work that needs to be done by scientists, which should lead to increased productivity.
“What we are seeing is an increased need to work remotely due to alternating days, slimmer shifts, trying to minimise time that people are together”
‘Folks want to sequence not just the virus itself but also the host genomics too, and how the genetics of the host may affect the healthcare outcomes. There is a lot of that sequencing information, for example, that needs to be gathered and they are pretty complex workflows,’ said Taylor
‘Some of those workflows we
have already pre-configured to get customers up and running as quickly as possible. In terms of the integration of instrumentation, for example, you may have specimens in the lab that you want to sequence, that information needs to be put onto the sequencer so that you know which samples you are sequencing, and that information can be relayed back to the correct sample,’ Taylor continued. ‘The integration really is automating the push of information to the sequencers, so that you are not copying and pasting or uploading and downloading files manually.’
Testing capabilities In addition to pre-configured workflows to assist in the genomics research into the novel coronavirus, Thermo Fisher has also released the TaqPath Covid-19 Multiplex Diagnostic Solution – a multiplex real-time RT-PCR diagnostic kit to enable clinical and public health laboratories to quickly
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